Tiger Schulmann’s

Woman defeats depression through kickboxing

Last Updated on October 21, 2014.

Princeton kickboxing helps woman conquer Bi-Polar disorder

There is a current article by Fox News circulating around the internet about how exercise can decrease the chances of depression. This is something that Tiger Schulmann’s student, Jaclyn P.  has found to be very accurate for herself. For 13 years of her life, Jaclyn has been living with Rapid Cycling Bi-Polar disorder and depression. Since the young age of 20, she has tried various medications prescribed to her by doctors, but none of them gave her the feeling of true happiness. She has even sought after further medical attention with 4 hospitalizations, and a more serious attempt with ECT (electric shock therapy.) None of these attempts brought her the happiness and normalcy she was looking for. The medications often led to weight gain and exhaustion, which brought Jaclyn’s confidence and self-esteem to levels of discouragement

As the article from Fox News tells; representative of the University College London, Snehal Pinto Pereira (member of the Institute of Child Health) conducted an experiment . This experiment concluded that people who are physically active through out their week have less feeling of depression than those who do not have any physical activities. The study had an average of 3 days a week for individuals involved, but those who exercised more than 3 times showed even less signs of depression.

Woman deals with being overweight and depressed
“Before I came to Tiger Schulmann’s, I had just accepted that this is how I am and there’s nothing I can do to change it and I pretty much became a victim of myself. I had no confidence in my self as a person, not just my appearance. I had the constant feeling that I was damaged and not fixable and also lived in a constant state of fear of my mental state.”-Jaclyn

In August 2013, Jaclyn decided to try her first activity as an  adult and took a kickboxing class at Tiger Schulmann’s Princeton. It was an exercise that not only left her feeling good physically but she also felt a difference mentally. The more classes she took the better her mental state became, and that naturally made her happier. Since our kickboxing classes burn over 800 calories in a 1 hour class, Jaclyn also saw a significant weight loss which built her confidence up. The mind intriguing work out of our kickboxing classes allowed her to find a new way to detach from her daily stresses, and led to a consistent decrease in medication doses. Even through one of the most mentally difficult years with the passing of her father, she has managed to rid all of her medications with kickboxing.

Woman defeats bipolar through kickboxing
“After just a short time of training I started to learn that I am stronger than I ever thought possible. Sensei Billings taught me that I AM in control of myself, mentally and physically, and I found the strength to take my life back. I no longer look over my shoulder in fear of what’s there, I look forward now with my head up confident that I can face whatever comes my way.”- Jaclyn

Jaclyn started at Tiger Schulmann’s feeling overweight, depressed, inactive and lacked confidence. Today she is feeling better than ever about herself and continues to train to make herself even better. She is down 2 dress sizes, and down to zero medications for her bipolar and depression. She has even begun training in our intermediate level classes to challenge herself further, with the goal to compete in our Challenge of Champions next year. She knows she deserves to be happy with herself, and she knows that kickboxing has helped her realize that. If she can do it, so can you!