Yoga and Depression: The Cat/Cow Cure
There’s a solid body of research showing that yoga can help with depression. (It also helps with having a solid body. Anyone? No?)
Before we get to the details—why it helps, and who it helps, and how much—it’s worth taking a second to talk about what depression is.
What We’re Talking About
Being sad is part of being human. It isn’t a bad thing, and sadness isn’t unhealthy. We’re supposed to be sad sometimes. In the same way that we need pain to tell us when we’re hurt and we need conflict to give us a sense of accomplishment, we need sadness to handle the parts of life that just objectively suck.
Depression isn’t like that. It isn’t business as usual and it isn’t part of how our minds and bodies deal with the world. Depression is dysfunction. On a physical level, depression is caused by neurons dying, white matter degrading, and networks of nerve cells breaking down like circuits damaged by corrosion.
Philosophers talk about it in terms of another kind of breakdown—damage to the subconscious, impossible-to-verbalize “background orientations through which experience as a whole is structured.” One of my favorite writers just calls it the Bad Thing:
I really don’t know if the Bad Thing is really depression. I had previously sort of always thought that depression was just sort of really intense sadness, like what you feel when your very good dog dies, or when Bambi’s mother gets killed in Bambi. I thought that it was that you frowned or maybe even cried a little bit if you were a girl and said “Holy cow, I’m really depressed, here,” and then your friends if you have any come and cheer you up or take you out and get you ploughed and in the morning it’s like a faded color and in a couple days it’s gone altogether. The Bad Thing—which I guess is what is really depression—is very different, and indescribably worse.
He goes on to mention other ways of trying to capture the experience of being depressed: it’s like being underwater in a sea that has no surface. It’s like being trapped under glass while the air is pumped out. It’s like every individual atom in your body is nauseatingly sick. In other words, there’s no one specific emotion, it’s something closer to a background desperation that underlies everything else you think and feel.
The thing is, though, depression isn’t an either/or condition. Neither the physical issues with brain cells nor the emotional issues related to feelings are all-at-once kinds of problems. They have many components to them. When psychiatrists diagnose depression, they have to ask lots of questions that begin, “how many times in the last 40 days have you…”
What that means is that pretty much everyone has some symptoms of depression, and it’s worth trying to reduce them even if you don’t cross the threshold for a formal diagnosis with Major Depressive Disorder.
De-Depressing Ourselves
So, how do you do that? Treatments for depression—whether it’s scattered symptoms or nonstop weapons-grade desperation—basically come in three flavors. You’ve got drugs, therapy, and everyday healthy behaviors.
(There are some more exotic treatments, like electrical brain stimulation, but those three are the most common.)
Think of it a little like owning a car: if the thing won’t run, you might need to fill the tank or take it in for a tune-up. Most of the time, though, the best way to keep your car happy is low-level good habits: drive it regularly, keep track of your oil changes, have a light foot, and, if you live somewhere cold, get the undercarriage washed.
Our brains need that same kind of everyday maintenance. That means regular exercise, good friends, and a balanced diet. There are plenty of ways to go about adding those kinds of habits to your schedule, but today we want to zero in on just one: yoga.
Why Yoga Works
You’ve probably heard of a dozen types of yoga: hatha, vinyasa, kundalini, hot, acro, restorative, aerial, yin, raja, jnana…some are ancient traditions, some are modern fads, some are just personal brands. (Here’s a quick guide.)
Although the word comes from religious tradition, modern “yoga” is basically a type of exercise that combines stretching, controlled breathing, and poses that train balance and strength.
Hatha and vinyasa yogas are more or less the default options. Hot yoga is done in a room kept at 100 degrees. Power yoga focuses on difficult, high-strength poses, while restorative yoga slows down the flow and focuses on deep stretches.
All forms of yoga, though, have a few things in common:
- Structure is built in. Yoga classes are organized by someone else; all you have to do is show up.
- Low-risk, high-value exercise. Yoga flows and asanas offer medium-intensity cardio combined with mild strength, balance, and flexibility training—meaning it has the most important health benefits of exercise without any of the downsides that can come with high-intensity alternatives.
- It’s social but not stressful. Yoga classes give you a chance to be part of a group without intense demands, like a low-stakes CrossFit.
- It’s inexpensive. Yoga requires very little equipment, and a single class should run you about $20.
- Spiritual depth. You can completely ignore the spiritual origins of yoga and still have a great time, but for those who are so inclined, there’s a rich intellectual tradition that amply rewards interest.
- Accessible to everybody: no matter your age, body type, or ability level, there’s a type of yoga that’ll feel good.
- It’s highly portable. Aside from a yoga mat (or even a towel), all you really need is you. So whether at home or traveling, once you’ve learned the basics, you can practice anywhere you go.
Given all that, it’s no surprise that for certain individuals, yoga may be about as effective as antidepressants or therapy.
Yoga helps with stress and inflammation, which are major causes of depression, and we think it probably helps with brain health too.
There are dozens of studies on this, ranging from case studies to pilot studies, randomized controlled trials, and systematic reviews. All of them agree that it helps, not just for major depression but for stress and anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, and alcohol dependence.
There’s one caveat, but it won’t surprise you. Therapy works about as well as antidepressants, but only if you go regularly. Same thing here: yoga works better the more often you go, and it looks like it’s especially important to show up at least once per week. (Doing yoga at home is a fine alternative if you can’t make it to a class, though!) Yoga, in other words, is a mundane miracle. In one activity, it combines most of the lifestyle factors that are most helpful for dealing with depression, and it’s cheap, widespread, and easy to get into. It’s a real gift for all of us living with depression.
