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climbing as anti-anxiety prescription 27-Jan-2011 At 2:34:53 PM billk

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Adventure sports - an anti-anxiety prescription?

The Age, January 25, 2011

Power ... activities such as rock climbing can improve mental health.

Some years ago I was abseiling down a cliff when the rock my feet were planted on took a sharp curve inwards leaving me hanging in mid air with around 400 metres between me and the ground. There was a watery bowelled, panicky moment when I wondered what possessed me to do this. Yet when my feet touched flat earth again, I knew exactly why - because getting out of your comfort zone can do so much to tame anxiety and boost confidence.

It all began when a friend asked me to go to a climbing gym. Familiar with gyms, but not the climbing kind, I’d blanched when I saw the height of the wall we were meant to scale. The big surprise wasn’t that I reached the top, but the pumped up feeling of confidence that had me raring to do it all again. Yet it was driving home when the most interesting effect kicked in: I was less white knuckled changing lanes in fast flowing traffic and I could cross the Harbour Bridge without breaking a sweat. Over the next few weeks, the more I climbed, the more confident I felt which is how, eventually, I ended up abseiling - and also wondering if adventure sports can be an antidote to anxiety.

Dr Sallee McLaren who’s both a rock climber and a clinical psychologist specialising in anxiety believes it can work for a number of reasons.

“I think it’s helpful with all anxiety problems because it enables people to enter into a deep level of concentration that helps push anxious thoughts away. People gradually habituate themselves to be more brave, and when you realise you can be brave in one area of your life, you realise you can be brave in other areas too,” says the Melbourne-based McLaren who often recommends indoor or outdoor rock climbing to clients with anxiety. “They can challenge themselves in a controlled situation because they’re either in a climbing gym or outdoors with guides. It also helps people not to be passive – anxious people often think of themselves as victims of anxious thoughts, and activities like climbing, mountain biking or white water rafting help them not to feel like victims.”

Adventure sports like rock climbing and abseiling can improve anxiety because they’re activities with a real sense of achievement and a real sense of fear, says Sydney clinical psychologist Grant Brecht.

“But anyone with a major anxiety disorder needs to be having therapy as well,” he cautions. “They need to be prepared for the adventure sport and be debriefed afterwards because if a person fails at the sport it can make things worse. It’s also important to have well-credentialed guides with good safety procedures.

“Still, as long as you’re in a safe environment, experiences like rock climbing and abseiling can be effective. They can change your belief system - when you’re in a situation where you’ve accomplished something and people tell you how well you’ve done, your thoughts about yourself change. I’ve had patients who’ve cured themselves in this way. But in 70 per cent of cases, the effect only lasts a short time so to make sure you’ve conquered a major anxiety disorder, it’s best to complete a treatment regime with a qualified psychologist as well as engaging in your adventure sport,” he adds.

Tamer kinds of exercise can also have a major mental health benefit, says Brecht who believes the message to get regular exercise should be as loud for preventing and managing anxiety and depression as it is for losing weight and preventing heart disease.

“To get an effect for depression and anxiety, research suggests you need to exercise frequently – five times a week,” he says. “We don’t know why it works but the theory is that it helps by releasing brain chemicals that act like opiates, as by sending more blood and oxygen to the brain – as well as a sense of doing something well and sticking to it.”