Social media has a lot of good and bad things. The biggest problem is that people that have a mental health issue often get on platforms, and they find content that isn’t healthy for them.
Mental health and fitness are often topics on social media and they often tell people with mental health issues that they need to work out more. The problem with this is that even though working out is good, this isn’t going to help someone come out of depression or to get past their mental health issue.
Exercise is something that is healthy but it isn’t something that is going to cure whatever someone is facing in their mental illness. Mental health issues are a problem for many people and there is no one type of cure for this.
Exercising
Exercising is an option that can help people to feel healthier, but it doesn’t always solve all of the problems. Exercise releases hormones that make people feel better and so it is easy to think that exercise can make someone’s mood better.
But, social media often makes exercise a treatment for a mental health issue and they make it seem that if the person exercises then they will be able to cure whatever is going on inside of them. Even though this can help their physical body, it doesn’t solve their problem.
Sticking with a workout routine can help but the person will also need the other help from their doctors and from their therapist that they are used to going to.
Doctors and Working Out
Not all doctors are able to tell people the best ways to workout. This can leave holes in an exercise program.
Some doctors think that eating healthy and working out can solve mental health issues but they don’t offer the guidance needed to make this work.
Exercising works with weight loss and people don’t usually want to just work out for no real reason. They will often work out in order to change how they look and when a doctor tells them to workout, they will do exercises that leave them feeling tired just to lose weight or to get more muscles.
People aren’t normally told to go for a short walk or to just go outside and do activity to get some fresh air. This is one of the steps to healing and if people would have done this, it might help them more than anything.
Having no real exercise guidance isn’t going to help someone that has a mental health issue. People have to be able to understand exercise, diet and the overall fitness culture. When someone finds these things online, they are leaving themselves vulnerable to what they are dealing with. Sometimes working out can cause even more issues when the advice is coming from a view of needing cosmetic work.
Doctors that are trained in nutrition or fitness often make recommendations for diets and exercise based on the BMI instead of other things.
Unhelpful Exercising
Some exercise is unhelpful and doesn’t help the person in their mind or body. Some exercise says that a person is lazy if they aren’t doing it enough and when someone is depressed, they might not be able to exercise like they should.
Final Thoughts
You might be someone that recommends walking or exercising to a friend or a family member that is struggling but you need to understand that you might not really be helping them. Working out can be complicated and even though exercise could help them, a professional needs to really step in and give this advice and not just a friend or a family member.
