Tai Chi and depression

Other short articles:
The spiritual element
Choosing a therapist
Tai Chi & depression
Asperger's syndrome

Links and feedback

Tai Chi, the most famous of the Chinese internal martial arts, is claimed by its exponents to be beneficial for all kinds of physical and mental health problems. In this particular context, it is claimed to be good for depression. I don't know whether my experience with it is unusual, but my path was anything but straightforward. I'm now a junior Tai Chi instructor, and its benefits are at last beginning to show in all sorts of ways, but it took the Broh trick to get off a long-established plateau with it.

I spent two of my lonely years in London studying Tai Chi, and it seemed to make the depression worse. My teacher told me it was a 'typical beginner's reaction', but failed to elaborate. He also told me that I did my Tai Chi like a robot. When I got married and left London, I left the Tai Chi behind with a sense of relief. That was in 1983.

Eleven years later, in 1994, I started on the Prozac, and a year after that I discovered a Tai Chi school in Crowthorne, Berkshire, a reasonable driving distance away. I've been with them ever since. They have a marvellously no-nonsense attitude to mumbo-jumbo (so I didn't feel 'spiritually challenged') and also manage to be very tactful about one's weaknesses. It seems like almost an added bonus that they happen to be excellent teachers, and know their stuff.

I learn forms reasonably quickly, but the 'internal art' eluded me for a long time. It was clear that my form was still a bit 'robotic'. Interestingly, sometimes the Tai Chi itself would bring on a weepie, even in this new, supportive atmosphere. It was becoming very clear to me that the Tai Chi by itself wasn't helping the depression, in fact it seemed to intensify it, even through the Prozac.

Even so, I still had 'rational faith' enough to persist, and once the Broh trick started to kick in I realised that all the years of practice were coming into their own. I strongly suspect that the Tai Chi accelerated that healing process, and it probably also indirectly contributed to the original Broh insight. I think, though I'm not sure about it yet, that it has to do with the fact that Tai Chi develops your body image - it literally integrates body, brain and mind - because you're paying a lot of attention to what's going on within your skin. Of course, there are plenty of other activities that can help you with that - you're not doomed if you can't find a decent teacher locally, or take to Tai Chi like a fish to a bicycle!

My teachers' web address is on the Links and Feedback page.

Other short articles:
The spiritual element
Choosing a therapist
Tai Chi & depression
Asperger's syndrome

Links and feedback
BROH home page

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Vivien J. H. Mitchell PhD