Zumba is an extremely popular exercise today but for instructor Karen Bedford, it not just about the dance moves; it’s about mental health. For Karen, 49, exercise was the reason that she survived and beat decade-long battle with depression.
In 1998, Karen developed depression out of a series of mental health-damaging personal events. She broke up with her long-term partner, was made redundant from her job at a publishing house and was fighting to keep her family home in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire. She was anti-depressants for a year, but still this was no permanent fix. ‘The antidepressants probably helped but I don’t think they were the right solution for me,’ she explains. ‘I questioned if it was worth taking them, especially because they made me feel unwell.’
While a new relationship and another job in publishing helped to stabilise her depression, mother-of-two Karen went on antidepressants again after her partner, Randy, died from pancreatic cancer in 2003. ‘I was terrified I’d be stuck on them for ever and I wanted to sort out the underlying problems,’ she notes. Then her life changed when her friend suggested an exercise class, and Karen picked the lively dance music-fueled Zumba. ‘I loved it – I felt better instantly after each lesson and it gave me a real high,’ she says. ‘Since Zumba became part of my life my mental state’s been more stable and I haven’t needed the pills. I get the odd down day, but because I’ve regained my confidence I face my problems much better now.’
In fact, Karen needs no convincing about how exercise benefits mental well-being. ‘I’d recommend it to anyone with depression and doctors should do too,’ she enthuses. ‘It’s definitely offered me a solution.’ However, not all wellness experts are so sure. For example, a study recently reported in the British Medical Journal found that depressed patients who exercised more as well as receiving antidepressants actually did no better than those who had just the standard treatment. According to lead researcher Professor John Campbell, from the University of Exeter Medical School, ‘The message isn’t that exercise won’t help depression but we couldn’t show it had an added effect beyond standard treatment. For sufferers, their world is black, so it’s not always an appropriate treatment to start with.’
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