According to many recent studies, physical exercise can prove very helpful in treating depression and anxieties;
“A review of studies stretching back to 1981 concluded that regular exercise can improve mood in people with mild to moderate depression. It also may play a supporting role in treating severe depression.”
[…]
“Besides lifting your mood, regular exercise offers other health benefits, such as lowering blood pressure, protecting against heart disease and cancer, and boosting self-esteem. How often or intensely you need to exercise to alleviate depression is not clear, but for general health, experts advise getting half an hour to an hour of moderate exercise, such as brisk walking, on all or most days of the week.”
http://www.health.harvard.edu/newswe...rt-excerpt.htm
Also, lots of data points to the fact that exercise may facilitate brain neuroplasticity;
"As little as three hours a week of brisk walking has been shown to halt, and even reverse, the brain atrophy (shrinkage) that starts in a person’s forties, especially in the regions responsible for memory and higher cognition. Exercise increases the brain’s volume of gray matter (actual neurons) and white matter (connections between neurons)."
http://www.sharpbrains.com/resources...uroplasticity/
The definition of "neuroplasticity";
“Neuroplasticity (from neural - pertaining to the nerves and/or brain and plastic - moldable or changeable in structure) refers to changes in neural pathways and synapses which are due to changes in behavior, environment and neural processes, as well as changes resulting from bodily injury. Neuroplasticity has replaced the formerly-held position that the brain is a physiologically static organ, and explores how - and in which ways - the brain changes throughout life.” (Wikipedia)
…thus helping the brain heal itself after the use of psychoactive drugs. Exercise may also help fend off the deterioration of muscles, bones, tendons, etc. caused by the prolonged WD.
The question remains though, how our bodies react to the exercise when we are in WD, and when even a tiny change in our daily routine may worsen the disautonomia? What volume and intensity of exercise are you able to tolerate? Do you experience any temporary worsening of the symptoms after the exercise? If so, does it happen during the exercise, just after it, or two or more days down the line?
