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Sky Diving Cured My Depression

nytimes.com

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Re: Sky Diving Cured My Depression

#31

Post by ada1981 »

dbg31415 wrote: post #4

I'm not a fan of the clickbait title here. It trivializes depression. I think the only cure for depression is death. Too morbid? You manage depression with behavior and therapy. You can attempt to treat some of the symptoms with drugs. You can break out of a rut by trying new things. But curing depression... like once and for all? That's not realistic. "Sky diving helped me get out of a depressive episode," or "Skydi…

Psychedelics can cure depression.

When you release the root cause of this stuff it often resolves for life.

Re: Sky Diving Cured My Depression

#32

Post by phkahler »

hprotagonist wrote: post #3

The history of alpinism can, to at least a first approximation, be summarized as "veterans with PTSD fixing their heads the best way they knew how". This goes for freeclimbing too, to a somewhat lesser extent. I heard a interview with a vet and climber once who described the appeal of alpinism as "all of the good parts of combat, without the shooting or any conscious thing trying to cause me harm". Skydiving sounds s…

I've found learning to fly is really good too. There's an element of danger, physical skills, a lot of focus, a lot of learning (the experiential kind too), putting yourself in a completely different place than you've ever been, and an instructor to walk you through it. Highly recommended.

Re: Sky Diving Cured My Depression

#33

Post by briandear »

hprotagonist wrote: post #3

The history of alpinism can, to at least a first approximation, be summarized as "veterans with PTSD fixing their heads the best way they knew how". This goes for freeclimbing too, to a somewhat lesser extent. I heard a interview with a vet and climber once who described the appeal of alpinism as "all of the good parts of combat, without the shooting or any conscious thing trying to cause me harm". Skydiving sounds s…

As a vet myself, though without PTSD, I can attest to this. I have been a semi-serious alpine climber and the reason (for me) that this works is because you have to be focused on the exact moment and precisely what you are doing at every instant. Crossing the Grand Couloir on Mont Blanc a few years ago, there was a serious rockfall problem (think Volkswagen-sizes boulders flying down the mountain,) the process of preparing for such a dangerous (and foolhardy) maneuver, puts your mind in a good place ironically. You don’t give a shit about drama when you are purely focused on your next step. Crossing a cravasse-filled glacier roped to your partner has a similar effect. Combining that with the slight hypoxia at altitude and it’s an amazing curative. Not even to mention the physical suffering of moving for 10+ hours, loaded with gear.

I get a similar benefit from flying small airplanes — the intense focus on every detail is like a forced meditation: you CAN’T be depressed because there’s no room in your thought for it.

The feeling for me continues several hours after flying or climbing — you feel almost weightless and you are very deliberate in your actions (driving after flying finds me less impatient, much more spacially aware and just calmer.)

I am only speaking for me, but I feel there is something too this — not just for depression, but cyclothymia and mania as well.

High altitude meditation!

Re: Sky Diving Cured My Depression

#34

Post by sampl »

taneq wrote: post #9

Motorcycling can do this too. I've ridden with quite a few people who get depressed if they can't ride.

Just got back from a trip overseas. The most calming, enjoyable part wasn’t the beaches, the food, the tours, etc. It was zipping around on a scooter all day.

Re: Sky Diving Cured My Depression

#35

Post by sjg007 »

There's a genetic component to depression, there is a societal component to depression, and there are situational components to depression. A lot of therapy is to identify rumination when it happens so that you can short circuit that neural pathway (thought process) and focus on being more realistic (ironically) or in the moment. You can think of depression as a deep neural network that's been overtrained on certain inputs to always predict depression. A life or death scenario forces you to act in the moment and decide in the moment (or very near future). That short circuits the rumination as well. Maybe it is an entirely different brain system as well.

Re: Sky Diving Cured My Depression

#36

Post by sjg007 »

sebcat wrote: post #10
dbg31415 wrote: post #4

I'm not a fan of the clickbait title here. It trivializes depression. I think the only cure for depression is death. Too morbid? You manage depression with behavior and therapy. You can attempt to treat some of the symptoms with drugs. You can break out of a rut by trying new things. But curing depression... like once and for all? That's not realistic. "Sky diving helped me get out of a depressive episode," or "Skydi…

Skydivers suffer from depression too. It would be interesting to know if skydivers as a group are more or less depressed than non skydivers or people who skydive less frequently. Are the effects the same for someone with +1000 jumps or is it the change in environment/trying new things that is the key to stave off an episode?

It could be that they've adapted to the input. Basically the novelty of the dive has worn off. It'd be interesting to see if they still get the same adrenaline response every time.

Re: Sky Diving Cured My Depression

#37

Post by oofoe »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #13

On a similar tack, in Australia they have been treating methamphetamine addiction with flying lessons: http://www.bbc.com/news/video_and_audio/headlines/43369891/a...

I'm not sure which is more expensive in the long run...

When I was getting my license, I asked another pilot how much money it would take.... "All of it."

Re: Sky Diving Cured My Depression

#38

Post by base698 »

hprotagonist wrote: post #3

The history of alpinism can, to at least a first approximation, be summarized as "veterans with PTSD fixing their heads the best way they knew how". This goes for freeclimbing too, to a somewhat lesser extent. I heard a interview with a vet and climber once who described the appeal of alpinism as "all of the good parts of combat, without the shooting or any conscious thing trying to cause me harm". Skydiving sounds s…

This notion of fixing depression by jumping is common in skydiving. I've been jumping about twenty years and I've encountered people who claim to had been very depressed in their previous life and that jumping fixed them.

Never heard that from a tandem first time jumper, only those that made it their lifestyle.

Re: Sky Diving Cured My Depression

#39

Post by jcollins »

phkahler wrote: post #32
hprotagonist wrote: post #3

The history of alpinism can, to at least a first approximation, be summarized as "veterans with PTSD fixing their heads the best way they knew how". This goes for freeclimbing too, to a somewhat lesser extent. I heard a interview with a vet and climber once who described the appeal of alpinism as "all of the good parts of combat, without the shooting or any conscious thing trying to cause me harm". Skydiving sounds s…

I've found learning to fly is really good too. There's an element of danger, physical skills, a lot of focus, a lot of learning (the experiential kind too), putting yourself in a completely different place than you've ever been, and an instructor to walk you through it. Highly recommended.

I second this. Learn to fly.

I'm never happier than when I'm flying. I can see how a similar effect happens to sky divers.

Re: Sky Diving Cured My Depression

#40

Post by nkoren »

sjg007 wrote: post #36
sebcat wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Skydivers suffer from depression too. It would be interesting to know if skydivers as a group are more or less depressed than non skydivers or people who skydive less frequently. Are the effects the same for someone with +1000 jumps or is it the change in environment/trying new things that is the key to stave off an episode?

It could be that they've adapted to the input. Basically the novelty of the dive has worn off. It'd be interesting to see if they still get the same adrenaline response every time.

I did my ~30th jump with a guy who was approaching 20,000 jumps. He seemed to get just as high off of it as I did.

Over time, the high changes -- from a feeling of "holy shit I'm alive!" to a much more sublime appreciation of the sensation of freedom while in freefall. You're not just dropping like a stone: every surface of your body becomes an aerodynamic control surface, and you feel like you can do anything (except, er, go up). That feeling of freedom never seems to diminish.

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