Battling Depression with Running Shoes and a Dog: Nita Sweeney

A major depressive episode turned Nita Sweeney from the law to writing. She is now an award-winning author who shares what she's learned in her autobiographical Amazon best seller Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink. 

 

Running, and more specifically, running with her dog helped change Nina's life and her mental health, and she talks with Coach Claire about how running can be an effective tool for managing mental health issues, the challenges and limitations of running, the importance of community, even a virtual one, for keeping your spirits and your training up, and for all you new pandemic puppy owners, she shares tips on how to run with your new friend. 

Nita has been plying her writing trade for over 25 years, and her work has been featured in health.com, healthline.com, livestrong.com, Fupping.com, PsychCentral.com, bpHope.com, Bustle.com, NextAvenue.com, UpJourney.com, Medium.com, Pawstruck.com, Thrive Global, WGRN, Sweatpants & Coffee, Authority Magazine, Intergenerational Inspiration, 2014 and Beyond, and Pretty Progressive, and in bp Magazine and Epoch Times, on the Word Carver, Running Dad, My Brain on Endorphins, and Diz Runs podcasts, and was nominated for the Ohio Arts Council Governor's Award.

Her articles, essays, and poems have appeared in Buddhist America, Dog World, Dog Fancy, Writer's Journal, Country Living, Pitkin Review, Spring Street, The Taos News, WNBA-SF blog, Pencil Storm, The Writing Cooperative, It's Not Your Journey, Wide Open Writing, and other newspapers and newsletters. She writes the blog, Bum Glue and publishes the monthly email, Write Now Columbus.

 

Her poem "Memorial" won the Dublin Arts Council's Poet's Choice Award and an early draft of her memoir, Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running with My Dog Brought Me Back from the Brink, (previously titled Twenty-Six Point Freaking Two) was short-listed for the William Faulkner - William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition Award. The book was awarded a Maxwell Medal in the Human Animal Bond category of the Dog Writers Association of America writing competition. It is a #1 Amazon Bestseller in the "mood disorders," "bipolar disorder," and "running & jogging" categories. The book was selected by Ohioana Library to be included in the 2020 Ohioana Festival.

Nita also coauthored the popular writing journal, You Should Be Writing: A Journal of Inspiration and Instruction to Keep Your Pen Moving, with Brenda Knight (Women of the Beat Generation.)

Nita earned a journalism degree from The E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, a law degree from The Ohio State University, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from Goddard College. She serves on the board of the Women's National Book Association of San Francisco. For ten years, she studied with and assisted best-selling author Natalie Goldberg (Writing Down the Bones) at week-long writing workshops teaching the "rules of writing practice" and leading participants in sitting and walking meditation. Goldberg authorized Nita to teach "writing practice" and Nita has taught for nearly twenty years.

When she's not writing and teaching, Nita runs. She has completed three full marathons, 27 half marathons (in eighteen states), and more than 80 shorter races. Nita lives in central Ohio with her husband and biggest fan, Ed, and her yellow Labrador running partner, Scarlet (aka #ninetyninepercentgooddog).

 

 

Questions Nita is asked:

        

2:41 Let's start with your running journey.  How did you begin to run regularly?

 

5:03 Your running journey is also connected to your mental health journey. Can you talk a little bit about that?

 

7:46 What was it like finding a running community?

 

10:14 How specifically has running helped your mental health?

 

11:49 I think it's pretty well known that everybody who gets a running habit going, you feel good, at least when you stop running. Sometimes when you actually are running it doesn't always feel good, but most of the time we feel good after we run, but there is a limit to that. You can only run so many miles in a day. You can't always rely on exercise for all of your mental health issues. Where do you kind of draw the line and say, "Yes, running is a tool but I need some extra help?"

 

14:16 Sometimes you need actual therapy beyond running; don't you agree?

 

15:41 I would also like to talk about you running with your dog, Scarlet. A lot of runners have dogs, and dogs help us get moving and get active, but you decided to write a book about that. Can you talk a little bit about that? 

 

19:03 What other tips do you have for someone who just got their pandemic puppy and want to start running with the dog?

 

20:59 I know a lot of people who run with dogs who will maybe do their warmup with the dog and then circle back home and drop the dog off and then do a longer run. Is that something that you've had to do? In marathon training, you can't take your dog for 20 miles or something like that.

 

23:21 I would imagine if you're doing any kind of speed work or some kind of session where you need to do that, that must be a challenge with a dog?

 

24:21 Many runners have, like you, found running later in life.  How has your running changed as you age?

 

16:13 With your running and the pandemic, all the races have been canceled for the most part, a lot of us are left without goals. Are you still running and training without that goal and deadline?

 

28:44 I've started to see these socially distant races come up, and it just makes me wonder, is everybody going to wear masks when they run, which is obviously hard, and how do you stay six feet apart, what if you want to pass somebody? Have you looked into any of that, like how they're going to do that?

 

31:49 I would love to hear more about when you are depressed or going through a mental health episode, you know that running makes you feel better, you know that calling a friend makes you feel better, you know that intellectually, but because you're depressed and not feeling good, you don't feel like doing those things. So how do you start moving when you don't want to move? How do you reach out when you don't want to reach out? Any tips?

 

35:37 Let's say I'm a brand new runner and I want to find community. Where would  you suggest me going?

Questions I ask everyone:

 

38:09 If you could go back and talk to yourself when you first started running, what advice would you give yourself?

 

38:55 What is the greatest gift that running has given you?

 

39:42 Where can listeners connect with you?

Quotes by Nita:

 

"I had to find something that suited me in a way, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally, and running did that."

 

"I really think that it's kind of ironic that I ended up writing a book about running. I couldn't have done that without the focus and endurance that I had from marathon training."

 

"Having gone through an injury, coming out the other side, realizing that it's going to be okay, that's been one of the great things of having done anything, but especially running for a long time, seeing those patterns."

 

Take a Listen on Your Next Run

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Mentioned in this podcast: 

NitaSweeney.com

Depression Hates a Moving Target

John Bingham "The Penguin" books

Marathoner in Training

Dash for Donation

Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community

RunnersConnect Facebook page

claire@runnersconnect.net

 

Follow Nita on:

 

nita@nitasweeney.com

Twitter

Facebook

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