Anxiety

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...ba href=/anxiety/a/b for the duration of the walk.

I was still pretty ill, wrestling with the demons that had sapped my lust for life and the medications that made me feel like a zombie.

But all this walking was definitely doing me good.

Instead of taking the bus to the hospital where I was now having weekly therapy sessions, I started to walk the half-hour each way.

Instead of driving to the supermarket when I only had a couple of bags of shopping to buy, I walked instead.

Walking London's streets made me much more aware of my surroundings.

Buildings came into sharper focus.

I found myself looking up all the time, like an excited tourist on her first trip to Manhattan.

I also started to take note of people's front gardens, and their front rooms too, if I was lucky enough to be able to peek through the curtains.

I discovered small, out-of-the-way shops and cafés, never seen before on my outings.

ba href=/anxiety/a/b makes you fold in on yourself.

You hug your arms around you for protection; you hunch your body and look down at your feet.

Walking made me want to open myself up and literally let in the light.

Some of the benefits of walking are well-documented.

It's weight-bearing exercise and therefore good for your bones, helping to ward off osteoporosis.

But I was amazed to discover that walking sedately, for half an hour, three times a week, can improve learning, concentration and reasoning by up to 15%, particularly in the elderly.

A bit like doing Sudoku, but without sitting for hours scrunched up...

...ba href=/anxiety/a/b and reduced levels of sleep, appetite and sexual desire.

Other chemicals in the brain that control mood and social interactions may also be involved in depression.

But to get treatments to restore levels of serotonin to normal, people who are depressed need to see their GPs.

“We know from lots of studies that particularly in people over the age of 50, depression is under-recognised and under-treated,” says Prof O'Brien.

“Often people don't realise they're depressed.

They may feel sad and say they have no energy, they may feel lethargic or sometimes have physical symptoms like aches and pains.

These symptoms may mean they are depressed but they are reluctant to recognise that.” Amelia Mustapha, Communications Manager for Depression Alliance, believes that many older people would rather tell their GP about physical symptoms than discuss emotional problems.

“Not everyone has been raised to tell doctors about emotional things,” she says.

Most GPs will recognise depression, because a national checklist of symptoms for the illness is used by all doctors.

But even so, some GPs under-treat the condition in older people.

Brice Pitt, emeritus professor of old age psychiatry at Imperial College, London, believes that some younger doctors consider depression to be a natural part of ageing.

In addition, doctors sometimes fear that the side effects of all types of antidepressant drugs may be worse in older people.

“These drugs can lower your blood pressure and doctors worry that th...