Made to Move: The Secret Medicine for our Mental Health Crisis

Lockdown measures in an attempt to fix one crisis have created another: a mental health crisis. Lockdowns, stripping us of our basic needs like social interaction and simultaneously limiting access to mental health services, have caused the mental health of the nation to plunge. Almost all of us have experienced a hit to our mental health over the course of the pandemic, even if we are not diagnosed with a mental health disorder. Data from the ONS has shown the proportion of UK adults reporting symptoms of depression nearly doubled between the year before March 2020 and June 2020 (before and after the first lockdown). This time of crisis is an opportunity to rethink our approach to mental health: Boris’ post-pandemic ‘Build Back Better’ strategy should focus just as much on regaining mental health prosperity as it should economic prosperity. A focus on sport might just provide the answer: we are made to move. 

Where are we now? Yes, we have seen increased recognition of the importance of mental health over the past few years. Yes, we have seen increased funding for NHS mental health services in recent years. This is all good news, but we really are a long way from getting it right: mental health support is still incredibly lacking in quantity and quality. The NHS has a tendency to rely on prescribing drugs with terrible side-effects for mental health issues; and getting psychotherapy on the NHS often has years’ long waiting times. 

I’ve undergone some very stressful episodes in my life, and upon reflection, I can see clearly that there has been one drug with no side effects that has worked better than anything else in improving my mental health: sport. No coping mechanism suggested to me by a counsellor has ever given me the mental clarity, renewed focus, and self-esteem that doing sport has to relieve my stress. When I’ve mentioned my sporting endeavours to counsellors, university staff, and teachers, they don’t resonate with me: most of the time, they themselves don’t do sport and hence don’t recognise how powerful a tool it is. Not only do mental-health practitioners lack an understanding of sport’s mental health benefits, but so do our politicians: most MPs spend their free time drinking in Parliament’s bars acquiring beer bellies, rather than running down the Embankment at sunset (a beautiful route, I must say). These people haven’t felt the abundant joy you experience when you start your day running into the sunrise with the birds chirping.

It’s not just me that’s seen the incredible impact of sport on mental health. Iceland has seen a monumental change in mental health, and consequently massively decreased alcohol and drug usage by their youngsters as a consequence of embracing a sport-focused policy on mental health. In the ‘90s, Iceland faced significant issues with alcohol and drug usage amongst teenagers. Teens need a way to relieve their stress, which they would do by altering their brain chemistry with alcohol and drugs; Icelandic scientists recognised that creating a social movement around ‘natural highs’ - changing the brain chemistry to relieve stress in a way that has no negative side-effects - could provide a solution to their high alcohol and drug rates. Teenagers were offered free training in sport, art and music, and were referred by teachers, doctors and counsellors if they seemed stressed. The results were incredible: the percentage of fifteen and sixteen year olds who had been drunk in the previous month plummeted from 42% in 1998 to 5% in 2016. Those who smoke cigarettes everyday also plummeted from 23% to 3%. Youth in Europe has started similar programs in 35 cities across 17 countries and seen similar results. It’s now Britain’s opportunity to adopt Iceland’s approach in their ‘Build Back Better’ strategy. 

So why does sport have such a monumental impact on mental health? First, doing sport brings you to a place of pure presence: you’re not looking at your phone at all, you’re solely focused on the activity at hand, and the blood and endorphins pumping around your brain completely relieve your worries and stress whilst you're exercising. If you’re outside, the trees, birds and water around you make you appreciate the world around you for that present moment. If you’re at a sports club, you’re present with a community of like-minded people who are completely separate from your work, academic and family worries: you escape the world to a place of peace and relief with others who support you as great friends and motivators. Sport also grows the brain - when you push yourself physically and you have to really focus to keep moving, you put the brain under stress such that it actually makes the brain grow. This not only makes you more intelligent but helps you learn to deal with tough situations - I can certainly say that my experience of talking myself through immense physical pain in training and ultramarathons has massively increased my capacity to talk myself through and come out of emotional pain. Making it through tough sporting endeavours and seeing self-improvement also has a massive impact on self-esteem and confidence. It also means that people who aren’t academic needn’t feel like failures: some people aren’t cut out for academia, but that shouldn’t mean they are not talented, and students who find sport as an avenue that works for their learning style can regain the self-esteem they deserve and that is crucial to their mental well-being. The physical health improvement following the taking up of sport will also raise self-esteem and motivate individuals to eat healthier too (which we know has a monumental impact on long-term health) - if we really want to ‘save the NHS’, we should be making sports participation a top priority. 

Studies support my hypothesis, yet we still don’t see the focus on sport in mental-health strategy that one would consequently expect. Strong evidence exists showing a 20-30% reduction in depression in adults who participate in physical activity daily. There is also clear evidence that physical activity reduces the risk of cognitive decline in adults and older adults with a 20-30% risk reduction in developing dementia for adults participating in daily physical activity. The Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine UK also recognised the prevalence of mental health conditions in minority groups, such as ethnic minority and LGBT+ groups, and how this correlates with lower levels of physical activity. The ceasing of sports club activity during lockdown was incredibly damaging to the ability of sports clubs logistically and financially to provide the mental health support they do. Now is the time for MPs, counsellors, psychotherapists, universities, schools and individuals to adopt the Iceland model and promote sports participation. If the government is going to raise tax to pay for healthcare, it would be more productive long-term to spend it on sporting programmes like those in Iceland than to just funnel it into the money drain that is the NHS. 

In the spring, Boris had hoped that the COP26 climate conference would bring back the national spirit that we experienced when we hosted the 2012 Olympics. COP26 has failed to do this, so why not instead focus on bringing back the national pride around Great British sport that we once had in 2012? Britain is a great sporting nation - let’s rejuvenate our pride in British sport with a renewed focus on mental-health post-lockdown. Politicians should support programs like the Iceland model. Universities, employers, counsellors and schools should highly recommend and make time for individuals to participate in sport (with flexible working hours) when students or staff are stressed. YOU should get out for a run, try some different sports, and if you think your friend is suffering mentally, take them along with you: they might hate it to start with, but they’ll thank you for it later. We are made to move.

Chloe Dobbs (the Treasurer, Ex-Political Officer, Ex-NEO for OECA Liaison, Ex-NEO for Legal, and Ex-Publications Editor) is a third year reading Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Pembroke College.