Exercise can be nearly as effective as therapy for depression

Re:Exercise can be nearly as effective as therapy for depres... by skywhopper on Friday January 09, 2026 @05:21PM (#46560249)

Your experience is not the same as other people. No one cares if you don’t understand their own life and choices. Get off your high horse and stop assuming that “those dumb depressed fat people just need to sleep better, eat better, and exercise and obviously it’s just that easy”. If you had success with whatever method, that’s great. We’re thrilled for you. But what works for you is not a universal solution.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Exercise can be nearly as effective as therapy for depres... by stuffn on Friday January 09, 2026 @05:46PM (#46560501)

Thanks for the strawman.

I won’t argue against you. It’s clear you would’ve been in complete support of the lobotomy craze. Exercise, diet, sleep, and good company are the most universal cure for the average form of depression. I specifically called out treatment resistant depression as requiring medication. Surely your basic bitch depression caused by being overworked, underfed, and slammed with bills can’t be fixed with anything but a simple pill.

You missed the greater point that medicines are overprescribed and OP all but made a Pfizer ad out of their post. HNers lack contextual reading ability, and life experience. It’s a shame really. The over prescription of drugs is a tremendous problem in the west.

My “high horse” is supported by actual medical science. Unlike the entire field of mental health.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Exercise can be nearly as effective as therapy for depres... by PaulHoule on Friday January 09, 2026 @07:53PM (#46561501)

Pfizer ad or not I'll say my AD experience was positive. I got it prescribed by a psychiatric NP in a time when my job situation was about to go to hell but I was planning to tough it out till I got the project done.

I did get the sexual side effects but because men often come too quick it can be a blessing as much as a curse, personally I found it took longer to orgasm and when it did happen it was a much more complex and richer experience with a definite periodization I haven't had before or since.

When I was taking ADs I did have problems I blamed on the ADs that really had to do with the "non-drowsy" antihistamine I was taking crossing my blood brain barrier anyway.

When I did stop ADs I tapered over a month and the physical effects were not bad at all. It was the beginning of a time of personal growth that I can look back on now and think it worked out great but was challenging for the people around me for a while.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Exercise can be nearly as effective as therapy for depres... by dang on Friday January 09, 2026 @09:00PM (#46561999)

Please don't respond to a bad comment by breaking the site guidelines yourself. That only makes things worse.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Exercise can be nearly as effective as therapy for depres... by dang on Friday January 09, 2026 @09:01PM (#46562006)

We've asked you to stop posting like this to HN. I understand that the topic is sensitive and personal, but being this aggressive in HN comments is not ok and we ban accounts that do it.

You've been a good contributor to HN for a long time and most of your comments aren't like this, but there is also a long history of us asking you to stop posting personal attacks:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46012112 (Nov 2025)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21867262 (Dec 2019)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21327013 (Oct 2019)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17371604 (June 2018)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16017705 (Dec 2017)

Moreover, your account has continued to be in the habit of posting aggressive comments recently, including personal attacks (e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46478121, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46463522). This is not cool.

I don't want to ban you but it's important to preserve this place for its intended purpose of curious conversation (which depends on thoughtful, respectful comments), so if you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stop doing this going forward, we'd be grateful.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Exercise can be nearly as effective as therapy for depres... by kazinator on Friday January 09, 2026 @09:10PM (#46562062)

As a long time Usenetter, I don't care about the first two sentences being abrasive, but the material in quotes is insinuating that the replied-to grandparent at some point contained that verbatim text. I have a hunch that it did not, which is not cool. Particularly because the text is negative, making the false attribution defamatory, which is a different category from insults.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Exercise can be nearly as effective as therapy for depres... by dang on Friday January 09, 2026 @09:21PM (#46562124)

Yes, using quotation marks to make it look like you're quoting someone when you're not is a trope of internet aggression and something we've long asked HN commenters not to do: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que..., and is one of the reasons why the GP comment was abusive.

[ Parent | on HN ]