A study from the University of Essex is now claiming that taking walks in green spaces helps alleviate depression much more than taking walks in urban centers or shopping malls, prompting mental health organizations to start flogging "eco-therapy" as part of a new solution to better health.
Since my entire family is riddled with depression and anxiety from stem to stern, I'm a bit worried. It's always studies like these that allow clueless laypeople to get loud in bars and holler, "Ya see there! Get the hell out of your house and you'll feel better! You don't need a pill for that!"
Actually, Beer-Swilling Genius? I do need a pill for that.
Because while riddled with anxiety, I was unable to LEAVE my house. So fuck you, dummy. I hope no one you love has to deal with these issues, since you're about as sensitive and informed as a used condom.
The longer you don't take medication for brain disorders like depression and anxiety, the longer your neural pathways get nice and familiar with those grim backroutes of the cerebrum which lead you to believe that people hate you and are out to get you, that the world is unfair and mean and hopeless and there is no purpose for anyone, including yourself, to continue inhaling and exhaling.
So, while Big Pharma is awful and money-grubbing and everything, I admit that I ain't gonna be able to take them on, much less tie my shoes and take a walk, unless I regulate my brain chemistry. A terrible double bind if there ever was one, yes. But I am not going to waste one more minute of my life being crippled by mental illness, so the anti-corporate principles? Out of the lifeboat.
I take prescribed mood-stabilizing drugs. They keep me from losing my mind. This I believe in as deeply as Stephen Hawking believes in gravity.
So studies like the eco-therapy one that tend to arrive at these common sense "no shit!" conclusions bother me because I want people like me to feel okay about seeking out drug treatments if they are interested. I don't want the Beer-Swilling Geniuses to carry the day. There need not be more stigma about depression or anxiety or bipolar disorder than there should be about diabetes or asthma. I worry that this type of facile conclusion will inhibit others from inhibiting their serotonin re-uptake.
But I can't totally knock eco-therapy, either. It's a cheap supplemental treatment, for sure, and one available to most of us. And while it rides on the heels of the latest "Carbon Offsets for Leo!" hype, I'm not really surprised that walking in a green space, versus the food court or the mall, makes one feel better.
Whenever I walk in an urban center or go shopping, I am attacked with the "Gimme! Gimmes!" My thoughts scamper around hysterically - "lookit how cute everyone else is dressed!" and "I really need this! Oh, and that! And that, too!" The next thing I know, I am obsessing about my least favorite thing - MONEY. Nothing like retail shopping for bleakly underscoring one's own dreary economic status.
Conversely, when I walk around the park by my home, my thoughts are still and very limited: "Don't step in the goose poop" or "look, a heron!" Perhaps these pedestrian thoughts are so dull that they create a tranquilizing effect on the body. Whatever. I'm not complaining.
Walking around is good for you, in general. One of my favorite parts of taking a walk is the realization that I cannot do anything else while I am there. I move my legs, I look at green stuff, maybe I listen to music or the radio. I don't call people on my cell phone or try to cram in any other chores or tasks that need attention. I walk. I look around. I say hello to people who pass me. I don't compare my wealth to that of the turtles sunning themselves on logs or wonder how that heron keeps herself so slim. My body moves, my brain does not. And I never have to open my wallet for any of it.
Got a take on ecotherapy, Big Pharma, mall-walking, the physiques of herons? Leave me a comment!
