Depression and Wilderness

Mike Clelland! should get a lot of credit for that hauntingly beautiful illustration that is what I consider a valuable part of the article.

While backpacking might be a good idea at some stages of depression, I'd pare it down a little for the earlier ones: take long walks.

When I had "the blues" a few years back, preparing for days or weeks in nature was out of the question. Way too much stress on a system already on its knees.

Just walking out the door on local paths in woods and parks was something that seemed to have a positive influence. I got physically tired and had breaks from the dark stuff.

What might be an even better question is whether backpacking can prevent or soften the onset of depression.

Here! Here!
GK

Very thoughtful and thought-provoking piece.

Appreciate your insights into the restorative powers of mother nature.

Hiking and running have helped me overcome drug dependencies, depression and solidified my perspectives towards modern consumer culture.

It is difficult to put into words the concepts you have discussed, but when you know, you really do know, that nature makes things good again!

Good essay!

In a medical article a couple of years ago, exercise was compared to anti-depression drugs.  They had similar rates of success and very similar lengths to be effective (try it for 6 weeks, see if it works).  Exercise had only positive effects on physical and sexual health while the drugs had side effects for some.

But with either one, you have to power through the 6 weeks of taking the pill each day even when you’re not noticing immediate benefits or getting your exercise most every day even while you’re feeling down.

Great topic! In spring-summer-fall I walk to and from work, 6 miles each way. It’s a fairly level walk, but mostly through the woods on a trail. It completely relieves my work stress in a way that just going to the gym does not. The gym is better than no exercise, but nowhere near as good as being in trees, among plants and animals, birds, flowers, rain, hail, or blazing hot sun. It’s a fantastic way of dealing with stress, and unending stress leads to all kinds of health problems, mental and physical.

If only we used public school gym class to teach kids the real joy of moving their bodies, instead of dodge ball and flag football, or how creepy the gym teacher is, or how painful it is to picked last for the team. They could learn skiing, running, orienteering, kayaking, swimming outside, hiking, biking, backpacking. I guess some schools have some of this, but not enough!

Again: talk therapy has a great record with helping depression. No drugs involved–unless indicated. And like drugs or exercise, it takes 6 weeks or more for the benefits to show.

30 years ago talk therapy was standard for treating depression. After the advent of Prozac, western medicine went on a drug therapy only regimen, partly because of cost considerations.

the thing is, talk therapy can be relatively expensive up front if you take it seriously–once a week or every other week probably won’t cut it–but it can be lasting. As in, you can put depression behind. Drugs treat symptoms. They don’t address underlying issues. talk therapy can.

I walk to and from work, 6 miles each way.

Uphill both ways?

You’re a doubter, Todd? Or just jealous. I do have the number one best commute. At least during three seasons. Right now it’s minus 30 F. (To be fair, my husband insists that it is only slightly over 5 miles, but he bikes, and uses a slightly different route.)

Not a doubter, just clowning around.  I think that’s an awesome commute.

“Not a doubter, just clowning around.”

That’s my problem.  I always get into trouble clowning around.  Hopefully it’s entertaining to anyone that notices

I can’t resist remarking on the irony of this paragraph in McNeish’s article:

“Dr. Horst Mueller is a clinical psychologist in Alberta, Canada and he’s an advocate of the simple campfire: “Its flickering light brings you into an alpha-wave state,” Dr. Mueller says. “Alpha wavelengths are those created by meditation and deep relaxation; they lower stress and give you an overall sense of enhanced well-being and creativity.” I don’t disagree with the thrust of Clelland’s assertions about the value of humans getting outdoors experience in nature (That’s why I’m reading Backpacking Light).

The irony is that at least in the Lower 48 States, those very same folks who advocate for wilderness experience will be the very one’s castigating you and leaping in your face about the environmentally and socially offensive act of having a campfire. We all know their protestations about the preferability of either foregoing a fire of any sort, or using only a small, compressed-gas camping stove. How curious, sanctimonious, and hypocritical! I doubt Thoreau, Muir, or Nessmuk (George Sears) would support this notion.

John, the continent looked a lot different in Thoreau’s day; as did the Sierra in Muir’s. There’s a lot more backpackers and population in general now than then. And global warming. In other words, yours is not an  apples to apples comparison. So, I don’t see the hypocrisy etc.

I’m not “getting in your face”; I’m expressing another view.

Have you noticed the fires in the West over the last several decades? Is it sanctimonious to restrict campfires under these conditions? Hardly.

Lol. You’ll get castigated yourself for even having a problem with those that have a problem with making a fire. Same with cairns. If you can step back the irony is actually comical.

@jeffrey

he is clearly not talking about fire restrictions but those that object to fires period.

I admit I’m having a hard time following why someone writing that campfires are calming provokes a diatribe accusing “all those” unnamed people–“these very same folks”–who are hypocritical sanctimonious a-holes. I’m assuming the author of the article is somehow included in all this–otherwise, why hypocrisy? I don’t know. I’ve never encountered those people. “Leaping in your face”? Sounds like a caricature.

Whatever. I’ve built small fires in early season when it’s cold and it gets dark early. They are calming, except I dislike the smoke. During the rest of the season I don’t want to deal with all that smoke so I never ahve them.

There’s actually a legitimate discussion to be had here if people could resist the urge to create caricatures of each other and just slow down and talk.

I’ve read a good deal of their work and I’m sure Muir and Thoreau would have some interesting thoughts on the matter, but how those thoughts apply to today’s situation we can only imagine. I think it’s a perfectly fair point for Jeffrey to remind us that the context has completely changed.

Depending upon region, I wouldn’t be entirely surprised to find either of those thinkers in the no fire camp in 2021.

“ I’ve built small fires in early season when it’s cold and it gets dark early. They are calming, except I dislike the smoke.”

I can relate to this.

As far as reinterpreting the life and perspectives of people in the past…good luck with convincing people one way or the other.

Yeah, that’s what I’m saying Kat. When John invokes these people…well, you could probably cherry-pick their writing and construct just about any contemporary narrative you can imagine.

^^^fair enough as long as it is understood that it goes the other way as well. Claiming that today they would agree with contemporary views is just as much of a leap. We do not know.

I used to think that small camp fires performed in slow motion what a single large fire would have done in the days before fire suppression. That is, burn off small downed limbs and trees. I honestly don’t know if there’s merit to this idea or not. In any case, the area cleared of downed wood by fire builders is too tiny to do any good for wild fire control overall. And certainly today we’re all fairly traumatized by the extent of wildfires in the West year after year. So camp fires are going to be more severely restricted, and fairly or not, some people will have a bad reaction to seeing them I suppose.

After breathing smoky air from fires for months on end where I live, the last thing I want is to breathe camp smoke when I’m hiking.