Mental Health: Running as a solution

Mental health is more than a buzzword, it has become central. Poor mental health has become a widespread problem in our society. Your psychological well-being is cracked. Running offers effective solutions. Running should now actively explain and emphasize this. The running festivals in the city of Mozart do that and set a specific focus in 2022.

The bare numbers of a current Austrian study are a deep-seated shock. 62% of the female and 38% of the male adolescents suffer from depressive symptoms. 20% and 14% would even regularly have suicidal thoughts in their heads. 1,500 14- to 20-year-olds attended the event published in December Study by Christoph Piel from the Danube University in Krems part and delivered the drastic finding.

To draw a comparison: In the 2018 HBSC study, the largest European child and adolescent health study updated every four years, was Austrian data a study by the Viennese child and adolescent psychologist Michael Zeiler cited that 80% attributed absolute mental health to a comparable youth group. The introductory sentence of the HBSC study, which can be viewed on the website of the Federal Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, reads: "Mental health is both a prerequisite and the result of the healthy development of children and young people and a high level of life satisfaction."

A dramatic phenomenon

According to an OECD study published in 2021, young people are currently around 80% more affected by depression and anxiety disorders resulting from the pandemic response than older people. In an analysis of 17 systematic reviews from thousands of scientific findings and four NGO reports, Findings from the University of Oxford in autumn 2021 that almost four out of five young people have a deterioration in mental health.

However, that does not mean that the stressful time since March 2020 has left its mark on adults and their mental health. The Department of Public Health at MedUni Vienna provided initial findings on the deterioration in mental health in society back in May 2020. A representative survey by the opinion research institute Sora came to the conclusion in autumn 2021 that 46% the population of Vienna was struggling with a significant deterioration in mental health. She referred to the mental health status quo as "the hidden pandemic." An estimate published in the journal The Lancet in October 2021 provides quantitative global figures: 76 million more people worldwide suffer from depression than would have been expected without the pandemic.

Looking forward to the comeback

Organized running in Austria, which has been brought to a standstill, has suffered along with the local running scene in recent years. The fact that individual running was always possible and was also highly frequented depending on the season was positive and helped many. We are delighted that organized running celebrated its comeback in Austria in autumn and this comeback will be even stronger next spring. Because the benefits of running, documented in scientific theory, also on mental health, find the ideal conditions for practical effects at the running festival in the city of Mozart.

The running experience in Salzburg, the targeted and ideally joint preparation for it with running partners from friends, family, from the sports club or from the office, promise to be a pleasure, radiate an attractive charm and are exactly the right thing after the demands and challenges of the last two years. Be part of it when running becomes “in” again in 2022.

Running is a strategy of balance

Because in addition to the negative findings mentioned at the beginning, there were also positive ones that relate to running. A number of surveys and findings recognized an increase in running activities in Austria and throughout Europe during the pandemic, at least with seasonal peaks. Society got to know running as beneficial for a stressed psyche on the one hand due to the nature of this form of movement and on the other hand due to the limited leisure activities. As a calming phase, as a distraction and as time for clear thoughts and classifications. Running is a strategy of balance, of beneficial compensation. A Happiness Strategy.

Interestingly, a non-representative overview of reports in the domestic media landscape about the domestic study findings cited at the beginning on the development of mental health in children and adolescents, but also in adults, shows that the connection to sport and exercise, in the case of children simple play, is almost never made becomes. And if then not with a focus on the health-promoting activity, but on the social relationships, which are of course also important. An indication that sport and exercise still play far too small a role in the health category. A mistake that the running scene doesn't make. Better health and well-being is one of the strongest motivators on the side of running enthusiasts to run regularly and one of the main messages on the side of event organizers.

Ten minutes of running for a better mood

This association is also so obvious, you just have to put the pieces of the puzzle together. It has long been known that children and young people find balance in their lives and thus relief for their psyche through free play and regular physical activity. It is also known that moderate, enjoyable running promotes the mental health of adults. Regular exercise reduces stress, provides structure in everyday life and ensures numerous balancing processes in the body, for example in metabolism or hormone balance. In addition, attention and concentration are sharpened. There are also side effects of an active lifestyle: better sleep, better digestion, a stronger immune system and lower inflammation levels.

This does not require large volumes and a fast pace, quite the opposite. Our psyche feels most comfortable in a leisurely jog and draws the best effects from it. A current one Findings by researchers at the University of Tsukuba in Japan states that after just ten minutes of jogging, an improvement in well-being begins. A well-received one Study by French researchers from 2018 analyzed that a quarter of an hour of running relaxes and improves the mood more effectively than a quarter of an hour of meditation.

We rediscover running

We at the Salzburg Marathon are highly motivated after a three-year break in a whole active week from May 9th to 15th to offer the runners the stage that enables the perfect running experience for body and mind. We give you orientation, goals and anticipation in advance and provide impulses that spark the motivation to lace up your running shoes regularly. Not for us, not to comply with any behavioral instructions, but solely for you and your well-being.

With the largest active sports event in the province of Salzburg, but also all other events, initiatives and running clubs that the Club RunAustria organized over the coming weeks and months, we are finally offering running again as part of the solution to some of the difficulties that have been piling up of late. The experience factor at the event, running together and interacting socially through running - it's about rediscovering together activities, goals and dreams that we all valued so much up to 2019 and lived out in a natural way.

"We run - together!"

The Running Festival in the City of Mozart wants and will make a very small contribution to positive social development and also to improving collective mental health. The youngest generation deserves a special focus on this. In 2022, we attach particular importance to our proven initiatives with schools and sports clubs with the aim of participating in the junior marathon. The joint preparation for school lessons, the joint excitement and the joint start in the junior marathon, embedded in the "colorful range of sports" with multi-layered sports and exercise offers in the Volksgarten, will be a special experience for schoolchildren after this difficult time. The emphasis is on "together", because isolation and loneliness were the main reason for mental health deterioration, young people naturally suffer more from loneliness.

Our motto at the last autumn was already Run.Sport.Fest.Salzburg: "We run - together!" This is the central message of organized running for the phase in which we are working our way out of the pandemic.

Running leads to mental health

The forecasts of experts in several European countries, analyzing the Omicron variant, agree that there will be at least a significant improvement in the pandemic situation ante portas. This fuels a slight but determined optimism in the running scene. Incidentally, running is not only a solution for sensible leisure activities into spring, but – to return to the subject of mental health – also a solution on the way back from serious health problems of a psychological nature such as mental exhaustion. Here, too, the relaxing effect of physical activity on the cognitive abilities in the brain is decisive, as is representative of others in a recently published study Study by German researchers from the universities of Cologne and Dortmund confirmed. It provides another indication of how important exercise has become in connection with mental health and ideally will be in the future. This is what the running community stands for.