5 ms·

Mentally-passive sedentary activities linked to 43% higher depression risk

55 points by grammers 3y ago

Bostonian 3y ago
As usual, a study that finds an association needs to be followed by a study that uses a randomized controlled trial to establish causality. Quoting the paper: "Participants reported time spent in TV viewing (mentally-passive sedentary behavior) and sitting during work or driving (mentally-active sedentary behavior) at age 44. Waist circumference, C-reactive protein, and glycated hemoglobin were also measured at age 44. Depression diagnosis was self-reported at ages 44, 46, 50, and 55. ]" If you are unemployed and not in school and living alone, watching TV is a default activity. The cause of depression may not be watching TV but the circumstances leading to it. You could do a study where in the treatment group people's cable TV is turned off. I doubt it will make people happier.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- potatopatch 3y ago
  While the cause of the initial depression may be something else, shutting off the TV may be the most viable cure for a long time depression where TV is the default activity. With enough entertainment there's not enough motivation to do less entertaining things that are ultimately less depressing because they are challenging.
  - radicaldreamer 3y ago
    Shutting off the TV is likely a cure to all kinds of mental conditions
    - iammjm 3y ago
      I don’t own a TV and am nonetheless somewhat depressed. I think TV is not any worse than other passive activities, such as watching YouTube, browsing news, scrolling Instagram, playing games, online shopping, … (and I don’t mean from time to time, but hours upon hours every day)
      - s1artibartfast 3y ago
        Indeed. TV is just one of many possible negative passive addictions.
      - jacobr1 3y ago
        yeah, we should generalize "tv" here to broader "screen-time"
        kobenni 3y ago
        Maybe we should even generalize further to "mentally-passive sedentary activities".
- toasted-subs 3y ago
  I am unemployed in my late twenties and feel like nothing to go right in my life. I pray to die everyday, but I cant say that without getting sent to a mental ward taking another 20 grand of my money and a week of my life. Everybody involved with mental health is sick. Especially when the healthiest thing I can do would be going outside, but I cant without police harassment. And I am an extremely attractive person who dresses well. Seems like a societal problem.
  - sleeplessworld 3y ago
    You may have reached a core existential struggle. This is in my experience fundamental to existence: does existence itself make up for the pain and adversity of the world? The spiritual struggle is in many ways to accept that life in this world has pain, struggle and adversity, but that this is a learning experience. But I guess this requires a spiritual look at things. Cause without this, I also think things look pretty bad... but if it is a spiritual quest, then there is light at the far end of the tunnel.
  - CobaltFire 3y ago
    I'm sorry you feel like going outside means harassment; I don't mean that in a negative way. Everyone should be able to head outside and enjoy the public spaces. Have you identified any root causes? I have no idea what part of the world you live in, so can't give any pertinent advice. This is not a judgement in the slightest, just an observation: Your post history on HN shows a very negative streak, about pretty much everything. Is this because of your depression, or is it the cause? If you frame everything you see negatively, it will have an effect on your emotions. Maybe try seeing the positive in something you don't agree with offhand once a day and see if that helps at all?
    - toasted-subs 3y ago
      If I have to deal with swarms of police everytime I leave my house that's not"feeling like harassment" that's straight up harassment.
    - sleeplessworld 3y ago
- onetimeuse92304 3y ago
  I came up with what I think is good explanation for what is happening. 1. People are paid to find topics to publish. Whether you are a media person that is forced to find something to write about to buy bread or you are a researcher that needs to show results. You are looking for anything with any value that can be put out there and create some traffic. 2. For any piece of research, you don't get from zero to hero immediately. You first find a correlation, then it takes time to gather some more facts and maybe, if you are lucky, find causation. Nowadays, if you are waiting for the whole proof, you are already late. Somebody will publish it before you and by the time it really is ready to publish, it is old news.
- bratbag 3y ago
  Boredom is a common motivation for action. Action is required to overcome depression, even if its just action to seek help. Easy access to anything that can alleviate bordom (including TV) is going to increase the chances that someone is stuck in depression.
- rchaud 3y ago
  > If you are unemployed and not in school and living alone, watching TV is a default activity. If you are homebound due to illness or disability, this may be true. For other groups of people, this is unlikely to be true. Stay at home parents likely have a full day of work taking care of a child or doing house chores. Being unemployed doesn't mean that you have endless amount of free time either. Applying for jobs and preparing for tests and interviews is itself a full-time job or close to it.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
ajkdhcb2 3y ago
>Researchers have observed that less mentally-demanding activity during sedentary behavior induces a higher risk of depression "induces" clearly implies causality. This is not true, the research only found association. Awful. These articles are at the point now where they just outright lie
- Llamamoe 3y ago
  Exactly. As someone with chronic fatigue I can vouch that brain-dead sedentary activity is what I go for whenever I'm having an extra bad day, because of the extra bad day. Being sedentary absolutely does worsen my state, too, but let's be honest you're not gonna do much else when you're dying of exhaustion and malaise.
Obscurity4340 3y ago
What about reading and commenting on dialectical formats/platforms like HN/Reddit? I mean, we're reading and writing and picking apart each others shit. I feel like we're all lawyers sometimes. Bang!
nicolasblack 3y ago
[dead]

55 points by grammers 3y ago

As usual, a study that finds an association needs to be followed by a study that uses a randomized controlled trial to establish causality. Quoting the paper: "Participants reported time spent in TV viewing (mentally-passive sedentary behavior) and sitting during work or driving (mentally-active sedentary behavior) at age 44. Waist circumference, C-reactive protein, and glycated hemoglobin were also measured at age 44. Depression diagnosis was self-reported at ages 44, 46, 50, and 55. ]" If you are unemployed and not in school and living alone, watching TV is a default activity. The cause of depression may not be watching TV but the circumstances leading to it. You could do a study where in the treatment group people's cable TV is turned off. I doubt it will make people happier.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
potatopatch 3y ago
While the cause of the initial depression may be something else, shutting off the TV may be the most viable cure for a long time depression where TV is the default activity. With enough entertainment there's not enough motivation to do less entertaining things that are ultimately less depressing because they are challenging.
- radicaldreamer 3y ago
  Shutting off the TV is likely a cure to all kinds of mental conditions
  - iammjm 3y ago
    I don’t own a TV and am nonetheless somewhat depressed. I think TV is not any worse than other passive activities, such as watching YouTube, browsing news, scrolling Instagram, playing games, online shopping, … (and I don’t mean from time to time, but hours upon hours every day)
    - s1artibartfast 3y ago
      Indeed. TV is just one of many possible negative passive addictions.
    - jacobr1 3y ago
      yeah, we should generalize "tv" here to broader "screen-time"
      - kobenni 3y ago
        Maybe we should even generalize further to "mentally-passive sedentary activities".
toasted-subs 3y ago
I am unemployed in my late twenties and feel like nothing to go right in my life. I pray to die everyday, but I cant say that without getting sent to a mental ward taking another 20 grand of my money and a week of my life. Everybody involved with mental health is sick. Especially when the healthiest thing I can do would be going outside, but I cant without police harassment. And I am an extremely attractive person who dresses well. Seems like a societal problem.
- sleeplessworld 3y ago
  You may have reached a core existential struggle. This is in my experience fundamental to existence: does existence itself make up for the pain and adversity of the world? The spiritual struggle is in many ways to accept that life in this world has pain, struggle and adversity, but that this is a learning experience. But I guess this requires a spiritual look at things. Cause without this, I also think things look pretty bad... but if it is a spiritual quest, then there is light at the far end of the tunnel.
- CobaltFire 3y ago
  I'm sorry you feel like going outside means harassment; I don't mean that in a negative way. Everyone should be able to head outside and enjoy the public spaces. Have you identified any root causes? I have no idea what part of the world you live in, so can't give any pertinent advice. This is not a judgement in the slightest, just an observation: Your post history on HN shows a very negative streak, about pretty much everything. Is this because of your depression, or is it the cause? If you frame everything you see negatively, it will have an effect on your emotions. Maybe try seeing the positive in something you don't agree with offhand once a day and see if that helps at all?
  - toasted-subs 3y ago
    If I have to deal with swarms of police everytime I leave my house that's not"feeling like harassment" that's straight up harassment.
  - sleeplessworld 3y ago
onetimeuse92304 3y ago
I came up with what I think is good explanation for what is happening. 1. People are paid to find topics to publish. Whether you are a media person that is forced to find something to write about to buy bread or you are a researcher that needs to show results. You are looking for anything with any value that can be put out there and create some traffic. 2. For any piece of research, you don't get from zero to hero immediately. You first find a correlation, then it takes time to gather some more facts and maybe, if you are lucky, find causation. Nowadays, if you are waiting for the whole proof, you are already late. Somebody will publish it before you and by the time it really is ready to publish, it is old news.
bratbag 3y ago
Boredom is a common motivation for action. Action is required to overcome depression, even if its just action to seek help. Easy access to anything that can alleviate bordom (including TV) is going to increase the chances that someone is stuck in depression.
rchaud 3y ago
> If you are unemployed and not in school and living alone, watching TV is a default activity. If you are homebound due to illness or disability, this may be true. For other groups of people, this is unlikely to be true. Stay at home parents likely have a full day of work taking care of a child or doing house chores. Being unemployed doesn't mean that you have endless amount of free time either. Applying for jobs and preparing for tests and interviews is itself a full-time job or close to it.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

ajkdhcb2 3y ago

>Researchers have observed that less mentally-demanding activity during sedentary behavior induces a higher risk of depression "induces" clearly implies causality. This is not true, the research only found association. Awful. These articles are at the point now where they just outright lie

Llamamoe 3y ago
Exactly. As someone with chronic fatigue I can vouch that brain-dead sedentary activity is what I go for whenever I'm having an extra bad day, because of the extra bad day. Being sedentary absolutely does worsen my state, too, but let's be honest you're not gonna do much else when you're dying of exhaustion and malaise.

Obscurity4340 3y ago

What about reading and commenting on dialectical formats/platforms like HN/Reddit? I mean, we're reading and writing and picking apart each others shit. I feel like we're all lawyers sometimes. Bang!

nicolasblack 3y ago

[dead]