Who Says You Can't Run Away From Your Problems?

Running is the most wholesome therapy for anxiety and depression.

In 1989, when I was a college freshman in Boston I suffered an anxiety attack of mysterious etiology. In retrospect, I suppose it was multifactorial—being away from the security of home and my nurturing mother, sharing a dorm room with others after growing up with my own room and bathroom, the cold Boston winter after living in the mild weather of Dallas. My mother found a distinguished, Harvard trained psychiatrist and booked a weekly appointment for me. He was a very interesting man, but my true journey back to complete mental health began when I walked into a running shoe and apparel shop in Boston’s North End and saw the following poster on the wall.

I found this wildly compelling, so I bought a pair of running shoes, thermal underwear, a thick warmup suit and hit the Charles River jogging path that very afternoon. After about three weeks of running every day, I felt my lighthearted spirit and optimism returning. Two months later I felt like a million bucks.

About six months ago—right around my 54th birthday—I began to feel overwhelmed by a multiplicity of things going on in my life. This gravely affected my sleep, and the experience of being sleep deprived amplified all the stressors with which I was contending. By the time Christmas arrived, I was downright despondent—perhaps even clinically depressed.

On January 1, I flew to Maui for a research trip, and shortly after I arrived, I put on a pair of shorts and running shoes and went for a three-mile run. The next day I did the same, and a few days later I extended three miles to four. For almost four weeks I have been running hard every day, incrementally increasing the pace each day.

Today I sprinted about 200 yards up a hill to conclude my four mile run. Walking and recovering in the bright winter sun, I felt the same lighthearted spirit and optimism returning that I did in the winter of 1990 in Boston.

There is a pile of medical literature on the therapeutic benefits of running. Just one example is a 2023 paper titled Antidepressants or running therapy: Comparing effects on mental and physical health in patients with depression and anxiety disorders that document the benefits of going for a daily run.

If you are my age or older and you have not vigorously exercised for a while, it’s a good idea to get a physical examination that includes an EKG and stress test before you embark on your running adventure. This is especially the case if you received any COVID-19 vaccines. If your constitution will allow it, your goal should be to train hard, which produces a marvelous endorphin rush.

In his 2014 book, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, Charles Duhigg documents a case study of a middle aged woman whose life and health were in shambles. One day she bought a pair of jogging shoes and developed a habit of running every day. Quickly she set upon the strategy of going for a brief jog whenever she felt a craving for a cigarette, junk food, or a glass of wine. At the end of one year of running every day, she had quit smoking and drinking, lost a ton of weight, gotten a new and more rewarding job, and developed a fulfilling relationship with a man. For her, jogging was what Duhigg calls a Keystone Habit—that is, a wholesome, routine activity upon which an entire edifice of good habits can be built.

I believe the most exhilarating scene and beautiful photography in the original Rocky is when he breaks into a full sprint past the four-masted schooner tied up on the quay along the Delaware River in Philadelphia. This is the key scene in the film when Rocky reaches the point of readiness to remain on his feet for all fifteen rounds.

And so, if you are feeling blue, consider buying a pair of running shoes and hitting the pavement. It will be painful at first, but if you stick with it and train hard, you will almost certainly feel better in just a few weeks.