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Exercise and football Can Help People With Psychosis – Here’s How…

2 min read
by Tim Dulle
Bringing balance to your well being, on and off the pitch

Psychosis is a symptom of many severe mental health disorders, but it can be controlled. Alongside medication, getting physically active can provide some relief, and this article will discuss how it can help you or a loved one.

It Can Reduce BMI

A couple of different factors can cause people with psychosis to gain weight. Firstly, certain disorders, like schizophrenia, can cause individuals to become extremely sedentary, and little to no physical activity often leads to unwanted weight gain.

Secondly, antipsychotic medications also come with weight gain as a common side effect. This typically occurs because they can alter biochemicals that are associated with appetite. As a result, people on these medications not only find themselves eating more, but it’s often poor-quality food that’s loaded in calories.

Getting physically active gives people who are sedentary and on medication a way to burn extra calories, and if performed consistently, it can get them at a healthy weight.

It Can Help Build Relationships With Others

Psychosis can cause people to become withdrawn and isolated from others, either by choice or as a result of the symptoms that can make it difficult to interact with other people.

Sure, a lot of exercises can be done on their own if a person prefers to do it that way, but it can also be an opportunity for people experiencing psychosis to start introducing themselves to social environments.

This is especially true if the main psychotic symptoms, hallucinations, and delusions, are under control with medications. If they’re managed, people with either short or long-term psychosis can form meaningful and satisfying connections with others.

It Can Relieve Adjacent Mental Health Conditions

Alongside your standard symptoms, psychosis can also affect a person’s mood in a negative way, and people can also deal with comorbid disorders like depression and anxiety.

Additionally, people experiencing psychosis are also known to abuse substances as a way to self-medicate. While it might not curb it entirely, taking advantage of exercise of any kind can be an excellent replacement and a great step in the right direction to making healthier choices.

Overall, because exercise is known to have the ability to improve a person’s mood and help them relax, it’s a way for anyone, psychosis or not, to include a productive activity that can only add positivity to their lives.

Additional Resources For Psychosis

Psychosis can have numerous causes, and some of them are chronic such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Therefore, it’s crucial to get properly diagnosed so that you or your loved one can get treated with medication as soon as possible.

Nonetheless, you can continue to be proactive and learn all you can about psychosis and how you can manage it by reading free advice like this one at BetterHelp, as well as discover how you can connect to a counselor or therapist who can help you cope with the stress that comes with having psychosis or caring for someone who does.

Conclusion

Exercise and sports, when used in conjunction with other primary strategies like medication and therapy, can be a valuable tool in helping to relieve psychosis and the stress that it brings to the table. Whether it’s a temporary or permanent case of it, it can be managed, and hopefully, this article has shown you why it should be strongly considered in any treatment plan.

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