Posted on 04/19/2008 1:56:53 PM PDT by blam
Housework helps combat anxiety and depression
19 April 2008
From New Scientist Print Edition.
FEELING down? You might be able to dust away your distress. Just 20 minutes a week with the vacuum cleaner or mop is enough to help banish those blues, and sport works even better.
That's the message from Mark Hamer and his colleagues at University College London, who wanted to find out what benefits arise from different types of physical activity. They examined data from questionnaires filled in by almost 20,000 Scottish people as part of the Scottish Health Surveys, carried out every few years. Some 3200 respondents reported suffering from anxiety or depression, but those who regularly wielded the mop or the tennis racket were least likely to suffer, the researchers report (British Journal of Sports Medicine, DOI: 10.1136/bjsm.2008.046243).
One 20-minute session of housework or walking reduced the risk of depression by up to 20 per cent. A sporting session worked better, reducing risk by a third or more. Failing housework or sport, says Hamer, try to find something physical to do. "Something - even for just 20 minutes a week - is better than nothing."
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
I think I’ll suggest this remedy to my wife..........
It also helps people with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. But they usually only get a very small area EXTREMELY clean...
No. I think it is deeper than that. I think a woman’s house reflects what her life is like. When I’m getting pulled in all directions, housework isn’t a priority. Looking at a sink of dishes, piled up clothes to wash etc gets to me. I feel out of control. It’s depressing. When the house is clean and organized the rest of my life seems organized too. We eat out less, appointments aren’t missed...life is calmer.
Don’t tell my bride, she is obssesive-compulsive. One speck of dust and it’s “all hands man your stations.”
You’re exactly right. The way mine works (quite minor) is that the whole house can look like hell but one spot will all of a sudden drive me completely bonkers and have to be cleaned right now, prior obligations be damned.
And about the house’s cleanliness reflecting your general stability, I’m exactly the opposite. The house causes my general stability =P
That is precisely the reaction I had, too. Good thing she’s got a sense of humor when she is not depressed.
Good suggestion from the country that gives us “How Clean Is Your House?” on BBC America. What degrading hovels these Brits live in!
I love it when the cleaning duo tells the filthy blighters off before teaching them how to get the horse manure off the kitchen floor...I kid you not.
Gosh, do you suppose there's any chance that depressed people might do less cleaning and play less tennis? Nah.
Let's take a trivial statistical correlation, pick the least likely causal sequence, and publish. Nobel Prize, here we come!
20 minutes a week of house cleaning? The place would look like a redneck shack in no time at all. How about a couple of hours a day? Unless it’s a very small house.
But the principle makes sense.
1) It’s depressing to live in a messy house.
2) It’s important to get exercise.
3) It’s always satisfying to do physical work, and do it well, in a way you can take pride in.
If you run around the block, you’ve gotten a little exercise. If you really clean up a room, you have accomplished something.
I broke down this morning and picked up that peanut....
Slacker!
What a bunch of crap.
Ladies, don’t fall for this.
I feel so much better and on top of the world when my cleaning woman and man come twice a week and clean my apartment from top to bottom. They do what ever needs to be done to include electrical and pluming fixtures if repairs/replacements are needed. Also, they paint the apartment once a year (whether it needs it or not).
Obviously, I do not live in the U.S. of A.
For those few hours, I feel like a princess.
So there.
“I think I’ll suggest this remedy to my wife..........”
After my input, too late.
My point. It’s not the “doing” the housework that makes you feel good. It’s the clean house that perks you up.
That’s what I first thought, but I’m now thinking a placebo effect. Or perhaps if it’s put forth a “baby steps”, that is, getting something accomplished that benefits *you*, it might indeed be beneficial.
Funny no breakdown by sex. I suspect this is far more true in women than men. Studies of brain activity and hormone levels show women create the chemicals that create a feeling of well-being by “building the nest” as it were, cleaning and decorating. Men create them whole doing nothing after a period of stress (i.e. vegging out after work).
Your bride to be or your wife?
My wife. Since we married a dozen years ago, we have made each day as if it was the first together.
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