Exercise for Addictions, Depression, and Anxiety
The benefits of exercise: Lessons from research and Eminem’s lived experience
By Mark S Gold
Published by Psychology Today on September 2, 2025
Key points
• If exercise were a pill, it would (or should) be the most widely prescribed medicine in the world.
• After detox and in recovery, the brain’s pleasure system is out of balance, vulnerable to anhedonic relapse.
• Exercising can reset the brain and reduce behavioral, addiction, cardiovascular, and medical risks and issues.
Addiction changes the brain, body, and behavior. Persistent insomnia, craving, depression, anhedonia, and anxiety may continue for months after sobriety, often leading to relapse. While we search for medications and treatments to set the clock back to pre-addiction, researchers have shown that regular exercise is a major plus. But many people, even doctors, don’t realize exercise helps considerably with addiction recovery, as well as anxiety and depression. For example, research reveals that actively exercising only 10 to 20 minutes a day reduces powerful nicotine cravings and withdrawal symptoms immediately. Exercise has also shown promise for aiding in cocaine and methamphetamine stimulant use disorders. For alcohol use disorder, researchers have found that exercise reduces craving and withdrawal severity.
