Against depression: what running does to Manuel

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I have known Manuel for more than thirty years now. He was always quite a sensitive character. Insanely quiet. Insanely funny. But also incredibly difficult for me to achieve. Both on the phone and when I sat across from him. Manuel lives in his own world, has his own flow, he was always considered an oddball. When Manuel is in the room, you immediately feel comfortable. Because it radiates warmth. Because he has leased an incredible friendliness with which he enchants people.

Manuel is probably the best listener I know. But he doesn’t like to talk about himself. I often wondered what lived inside him. I often worried because I couldn’t reach him for weeks. He didn’t respond to any e-mail, to any WhatsApp, he certainly didn’t answer the phone.

Then one day my collar burst. And I wrote him that I would like to know where I stand with him. How important our relationship is to him. That she is too one-sided for me. For my part, I didn’t want to go on like this.

I’m sorry

His dive hurt me too much. Manuel called timidly. “Mike, I’m sorry. I didn’t know that I hurt you with my kind. But I want to tell you: It’s not my fault. It’s no ill will that I dive away, that I disappear, that I can’t be found. There are often days when I wake up. And have no strength. I sit down, put my head between my legs and remain like that for hours. I might just have the strength to go to work. I pull through the eight hours. Then I go back home. sit me down again Put your head between your legs for hours. I do not hear anything. No phone, no knocking, nothing. I dive into my world, this world in which only I am. It’s a deep depression.”

I’ve had this image in my mind ever since. How Manuel sits alone in his apartment, his head between his legs. Without moving. And I realize how helpless I feel. You would like to help, but you don’t really know how. And whether it is even possible to get a loved one with depression out of the famous hole.

Of course, I often talked to experts, who all assured me: It’s almost impossible to solve this for the environment. Those affected must become active themselves and seek treatment. This faint has bothered me for a long time.

What can running do?

I often talked to Manuel about running, just told him about it. From the daily runs, from the marathon, from the ultramarathon. I haven’t heard from him for a long time.

A phone call a few weeks ago. Manuel has been running for some time. Not regular yet, but it’s going. He has lost weight, he looks much fresher. “Through running, the moments have become fewer. The moments with your head between your legs. It really helps. You were right,” he told me.

It’s not new that running can help fight depression to some degree. Running is often part of therapy to manage this disease. But what was new to me was that I knew far too little about depression. That almost every one of us has someone with this disease in our circle of friends. That none of us are therapists. But that we have running, which we can only cautiously recommend to others. Not more. But also no less.

I’m incredibly happy that Manuel now has his depression well under control. Of course, it’s not just about running. He is in therapy, he can now leave off the medication he took at the beginning. And that, he told me, is directly related to running. It would be like his new medicine. That’s how it works.

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