Approximately 3.3 million adults in the nation consider themselves unhappy, according to the results of a health foundation survey.
The John Tung Foundation said the analysis was based on its survey on happiness and exercise habits conducted in June and July, collecting 4,790 valid questionnaires from adults above 18 years old.
Yeh Ya-hsin (葉雅馨), head of the foundation’s mental health section, said 17.1 percent of the respondents said they were “very unhappy” or “unhappy,” and that equates to about 3.3 million Taiwanese adults.
Moreover, the survey showed that up to 46.9 percent of those “very unhappy” or “unhappy” respondents most likely had some form of depression and should seek professional advice or medical treatment, she said.
Yeh said among the 76.2 percent of “very happy” or “happy” respondents, 27.3 percent were or are in the habit of regular exercise.
Only 17.3 percent of the “very unhappy” or “unhappy” respondents said they did or do exercise, and up to 59.2 percent of them answered that they did not exercise at all or less than once per week in the past six months.
“Exercise is a drug for treating depression,” Le Chun Clinic psychiatrist Fan Le-qun (范樂群) said.
Fan said many patients who suffer from depression are afraid of the side effects from taking drugs, so exercise can be an effective solution.
He said many people develop depression, panic or anxiety disorders because they feel stressed or are living an intense life. This can cause an imbalance between their sympathetic nervous system and parasympathetic nervous system — dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system.
Fan said exercise stimulates the release of chemicals including endorphin and serotonin, which can improve a person’s mood and regulate their emotions within approximately 30 minutes from the start of activity.
He said that that exercise can easily be squeezed into a busy daily schedule and become an everyday habit.
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