Contest Entry:

This time instead of a personal story I will share a treatment for depression. Hopefully some people will find this info helpful :)

The treatment I will talk about not only has no side effects, but actually many benefits. A treatment anyone with moderate depression should try before drugs and meds. Interestingly, this "treatment" can prevent depression before it happens so you may want to give it a try, even if you are not a sufferer!

The name of this treatment is exercise! Moderate daily exercise has actually been found again and again to be "moderately more effective than a control intervention and comparable to psychological or antidepressant drug therapies. Smaller effects were seen in more methologically rigorous studies." (quoted sentenced copied from wikipedia)

20-30 minutes of moderate exercise are more than enough to see results. Give it a try. You have nothing to lose, but so many to gain, other than your mental stability!

Since I am not a doctor my word has little weight. So here are some references to back up my statement:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management_of_depression#Exercise
2. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD004366.pub6/abstract;jsessionid=D08CB0B961D402D713BEA47199BBBAF2.f02t01
3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24589012
4. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160210134834.htm
5. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170612115320.htm
6. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140925131345.htm
7. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170131075131.htm
8. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140916084825.htm
9. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131028163003.htm

What I can say from personal experience is that exercise helped me a lot with some serious anxiety issues I had some months ago. It's not the same problem but I believe it falls in the same spectrum of mental diseases.