Yoga can help people escape years of anxiety and depression when medication has failed, says a local yoga guru.
First, the doctors gave her Serotonin for the anxiety, then Effexor for the depression and other pills for bipolar disorder.
But Monika Murray can’t list all the medications she’s been on over the years.
“I don’t remember the names of the rest of them,” Murray says. “The meds did horrible things to my body. I couldn’t walk, and my balance was totally gone. It was more frustrating than helpful.”
Murray says that after failed attempts at therapy and medication, it was yoga that finally helped her break out of years of severe anxiety and depression.
Now she wants to pass this tool on to others suffering from mental illnesses.
Murray is one of many using physical activity to help people with mental health issues in Centretown.
Psychologists say physical activity – from simply getting out of bed to running around the block – can be an important part of treating mental illness such as depression.
In January 2007, Murray started teaching yoga to patients with mental illnesses at the Royal Ottawa Hospital.
Last month, she helped start a program at the Rama Lotus yoga studio that will bring yoga teachers to the hospital, seniors’ groups and homeless shelters.
Murray says yoga teaches people to re-program their minds, by focusing on the breath.
“You can’t be in the breath and think about something else. The human mind can only focus on one thing at a time,” she says.
The 40-year-old says many students with mental illness benefit from simply breathing with their hands on their bellies.
While Murray says yoga doesn’t replace medication altogether, it is one method people can use to cut down on it.
Phil Marsh, area manager for the Running Room in Ottawa, is also bringing physical exercise to people who grapple with homelessness and drug and alcohol addictions in Centretown.
Marsh, who has been coaching running for 25 years, is now taking groups of men from The Ottawa Mission on walks and runs every Saturday.
Marsh says many of the men have a criminal history, or are recovering alcoholics and drug addicts.
“A lot of it stems from mental health issues,” he said, adding that running helps these men achieve a greater “self-confidence, and that feeling of body awareness, and that feeling of endorphin production.”
Marsh says the local community has been supportive of the running group, with by-standers “giving thumbs up, high-fiving.”
Toronto psychologist Nili Benazon says that physical activity does not have to be rigorous to have an effect on mental health, but that it’s important to break out of lethargic patterns.
“There is nothing reinforcing about lying on the couch,” Benazon says.
And although physical activity is not a cure for mental illness, exercise does have its place in the recovery process, he said.
“A good part of my enthusiasm for any form of physical activity in treating anxiety or depression is that along the way, the client forgets his or her woes for a while, and very often they make social connections at the same time,” Benazon says.
“Yoga and pilates would be helpful to people with anxiety because this form of activity emphasizes breathing slowly and deeply, which can have a calming effect ,” Benazon says.
Monika Murray agrees.
She says she wants to help people with mental illness to experience the same benefits she did.
“I want to be the helping hand I didn’t get."