9 ms·

Sky Diving Cured My Depression

106 points by montrose 9y ago

CMCDragonkai 9y ago
There's an incredible amount of euphoria when you conquer your fears.
hprotagonist 9y ago
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 similar, if shorter in duration than 3 weeks on K2 or something.
- phkahler 9y ago
  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.
  - jcollins 9y ago
    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.
  - passivepinetree 9y ago
    The only problem is learning to fly is prohibitively expensive for most people. Skydiving is a much cheaper activity.
    - shkkmo 9y ago
      > The only problem is learning to fly is prohibitively expensive for most people. Skydiving is a much cheaper activity. I assume you are talking about flying an typical small airplane? You can learn to paraglide for well under $2k.
    - petre 9y ago
      Paragliding is even cheaper.
- briandear 9y ago
  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!
- base698 9y ago
  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.
  - daveoflynn 9y ago
    Likewise - in the decade I was active in the sport of skydiving, I heard plenty of stories around using the sport to help with stress, depression, and other issues back in the “real world”. Never heard of a tandem jumper saying that, but then, how big is my sample size?
  - AndrewKemendo 9y ago
    My guess is that it's cause they gained a community - that seems to be the #1 thing that keeps people in the sport. I did MFF and got my A License and stopped jumping because I honestly didn't enjoy the community.
dbg31415 9y ago
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 "Skydiving helped me stave off having depressive episodes..." would be more accurate.
- ephemeral8853 9y ago
  “Stave off episodes” or “cure” is a modelling distinction. If the sense of depression doesn’t cloud over a life anymore, they both amount to the same thing. There’s nothing trivializing about that. It’s just an individual’s story of coping, recovery, and hope.
- Razengan 9y ago
  As someone with a sourceless depression for many years, I also used to think (and still do sometimes) that death/oblivion is the only "real" cure, and anything else is a temporary distraction from the problem. Lately I've been trying to see it from a different direction: What am I really looking for when I harbor suicidal thoughts? Escape, and more specifically: Freedom. It's not that I WANT to die; on the contrary, I want to live forever! There's too many things I want to do and see. I want to get off this planet and learn what's beyond. But I can't, and in the back of my mind I feel there's no point to anything. I like to create but nothing lasts forever. So I'd be content with just being able to explore and discover as much as I can, as long as I can. Skydiving definitely gives a sense of freedom, as well as some degree of control – I could choose to throw away my parachute and splat on the ground – but I suppose the rush of physical sensations might make one feel alive enough at the moment to not want to die just then..
- sebcat 9y ago
  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?
jdietrich 9y ago
I'd love to see a clinical trial on this. What's a suitable placebo for jumping out of a plane, I wonder?
- RobertRoberts 9y ago
  "There has never been a double blind test on the efficacy of parachutes!" -Internet Scientist Not sure I'd trust a parachute without proper testing.
  - kolinko 9y ago
    We have some retrospective research though, although I'm not sure the causation was shown, not just correlation.
- astura 9y ago
  "Indoor skydiving?" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_wind_tunnel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_wind_tunnel
mixmastamyk 9y ago
Definitely, would do it regularly if not for my daughter. Cheapest therapy ever, ~$200. Everything in life gets the reset button. Just so happy to be ALIVE. I kissed the ground on my return, haha. A friend asked how long it lasts, personally was about two months, but there are still residual effects years later.
- nstj 9y ago
  when you do have jumped more than 10 times it's only $25 a shot (even cheaper if you BYO parachute)
- PappaPatat 9y ago
  The article describes me. Your comment too. As to the article: I found my cure with skydiving, the complete and utter helplessness and giving in to the powers that be made me loose my depressing desire to (believe that I can) exercise control over everything, which would never really work, which would make me feel inadequate, which fueled my depression, which let to less power to control, which... you get the idea. While skydiving I know I've given up control (on a controlled moment) and that helps me deal with other moments where I observe that same loss. As to your comment: Since I have kids, I do not feel I can risk my own live as much since they somewhat depend on me and I owe them my presence. Thus I stopped doing it regularly (once a month) and now only do it when I need it (once a every year up to once every 5 years). That's "how long it lasts" for me.
- piracy1 9y ago
  Statistically parachuting is not all that dangerous. You're about as likely to die from running a marathon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromort https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromort
taneq 9y ago
Motorcycling can do this too. I've ridden with quite a few people who get depressed if they can't ride.
- GoAwayPeter 9y ago
  I suppose for the same reason as is speculated in the article; you can only focus on the moment when you're on a bike.
- reificator 9y ago
  I'm not a speed demon, I wear reasonable motorcycle gear, and I don't do anything for the sake of danger/thrillseeking. But getting back in the saddle last year after a long hiatus and using it as my primary means of transport has done wonders for my state of mind. (And my wallet for that matter, which relieves stress, which then comes around to state of mind again.) I've got more than enough storage to go grocery shopping, I've got music through my helmet (Sena doesn't have much competition, but I don't have many complaints) and I've got nice warm clothes so cold is not an issue. I do miss it on days when there's snow on the ground or low visibility, but around here that doesn't last more than a few days, a week at most.
- sampl 9y ago
  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.
- marssaxman 9y ago
  It works for me, in a really remarkable way. My bike broke down twice last year, and I couldn't ride for over a week each time; it was really remarkable to notice how dramatically my mood improved when I got the machine back. I hadn't noticed that I was getting depressed, but I sure noticed the feeling after I got back on two wheels - like drawing in a deep breath, as clarity and calm returned. Sometimes I use the bike that way on purpose, not to go anywhere but simply to improve my mood. A quick run out east on the highway, up to the mountains and back, will usually knock me out of whatever loop I've got stuck in. I think it has something to do with the way that you have to stay present, immersed in the moment, aware of everything going on around you; there's still some room in the brain for higher-level thought, but you have a base of calm presence to work from.
PeterStuer 9y ago
To me (IANA...) this reads like 'Sky Diving relieved my anxiety which cause(s/d) my depression'.
- pygy_ 9y ago
  ... which is compatible with the recent understanding that depression is (usually?) the result of being worn out by chronic stress.
  - kolinko 9y ago
    Worth remembering that it's not always true - some people have genetic predispositions if I'm not mistaken.
    - rfugger 9y ago
      The two aren't mutually exclusive. You can have a genetic disposition to being worn out by chronic stress.
  - PeterStuer 9y ago
    I'm not arguing that is bad. Just pointing out that for non-anxiety (I think anxiety and stress are still something different) related depressions this might not help.
toomanybeersies 9y ago
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/australia-fights-drug-addiction-with-plane-flying-lessons http://www.bbc.com/news/video_and_audio/headlines/43369891/a...
- oofoe 9y ago
  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."
  - toomanybeersies 9y ago
    I suspect that the life expectancy of a pilot is longer than that of a meth addict though...
pbalau 9y ago
Sailing did this for me.
- telesilla 9y ago
  Sailing is an incredible way to right yourself. I'm reminded of Bernard Moitessier, who almost won the 1968/69 round-the-world race but quit and decided to keep on sailing: why return to civilisation when you've found true peace already? It's a really great example of how the way we live in modern times just isn't great for our psyche. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Moitessier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Moitessier
  - pbalau 9y ago
    You know, I grew up reading one of his books, "Un Vagabond des mers du sud" (in Romanian "Hoinar in marile sudului"). I could bet you a fiver that he is one of the reasons I became obsessed with sailing since a very young age. After moving to London I figured out I am in the best place ever to learn sailing. And here I am now, Level 3 RYA dinghy sailing + just got my power boat license. I will be always grateful to my sailing club (North London Sailing Association) for introducing me to the English sailing culture and helping me get over some crap in my life.
scotty79 9y ago
I wonder what gives you grater chance of dying, depression or skydiving?
- reificator 9y ago
  Purely on gut instinct I'd put my money on depression.
  - RobertRoberts 9y ago
    Bad depression can also hurt every day. Bad skying diving only once. (YEMV)
    - scotty79 9y ago
      I'm not trying to say that it's not worth it, because I know depression is horrible daily. Although when skydiving even when everything goes perfect you still hit ground at pretty high speeds. It must be hard for spine and joints and probably can also cause some daily problems especially at later age.
      - rlpb 9y ago
        > Although when skydiving even when everything goes perfect you still hit ground at pretty high speeds. No, that's not right. If you can land well, it's certainly no harsher to your body than jumping off a step. If the wind is light then you might have to run a bit. That's all. Source: I have made hundreds of parachute landings like this. You might be thinking of round parachutes, which today are not used by sport skydivers.
- wellboy 9y ago
  Skydiving death rate is around 1/1,000,000, depression is around 1/20 IIRC.
  - scotty79 9y ago
    Depression - between 1/100 and 1/14 (lifetime) Skydiving - 1/150000 per jump. At least according to: https://www.hhs.gov/answers/mental-health-and-substance-abuse/does-depression-increase-risk-of-suicide/index.html https://www.hhs.gov/answers/mental-health-and-substance-abus... and https://www.google.pl/amp/s/www.seeker.com/amphtml/how-common-are-skydiving-accidents-1765419215.html https://www.google.pl/amp/s/www.seeker.com/amphtml/how-commo...
zwischenzug 9y ago
Darwin used to immerse his head in cold water - the Victorian 'reset button' for depression.
FabHK 9y ago
I find flying little airplanes has a meditative element. One does not ruminate idly while flying, but is effortlessly focused on aviating, navigating, and monitoring in the here and now. Very calming.
sjg007 9y ago
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.
908087 9y ago
Skydiving and BASE jumping can be both a cure for and a cause of depression, depending on how long you spend doing it and how many of your friends go in during that time.
JoeDaDude 9y ago
Former skydiver here, 1400+ jumps logged. The effects of skydiving on you mental state are well known to us, though rarely put into writing. I'll defer to Charles Lindbergh, who had a way with words (in addition to airplanes) to sum it up [1]: "When I decided that I too must pass through the experience of a parachute jump, life rose to a higher level, to a sort of exhilarated calmness. The thought of crawling out onto the struts and wires hundreds of feet above the earth, and then giving up even that tenuous hold of safety and of substance, left me a feeling of anticipation mixed with dread, of confidence restrained by caution, of courage salted through with fear. How tightly should one hold onto life? How loosely give it rein? What gain was there for such a risk? I would have to pay in money for hurling my body into space. There would be no crowd to watch and applaud my landing. Nor was there any scientific objective to be gained. No, there was deeper reason for wanting to jump, a desire I could not explain. It was that quality that led me into aviation in the first place — it was a love of the air and sky and flying, the lure of adventure, the appreciation of beauty. It lay beyond the descriptive words of man — where immortality is touched through danger, where life meets death on equal plane; where man is more than man, and existence both supreme and valueless at the same instant." [1] The Spirit of St Louis, Charles Lindbergh, 1953
- djsumdog 9y ago
  I got to see a very good friend of mine a few months ago from my hometown; someone I grew up with. He got really into Skydiving when we were in University. He kept trying to get me to jump. Guy spent a lot of time and money in the summer doing jumps and getting his various certificates. He got to the point where he was qualified to pack his own chute. He had one bad landing and shattered his leg. Apparently paramedics have no sympathy for people who injury themselves jumping out of a plane. He did jump for a few years after recovering from that. His roommate screwed up a landing and punctured his lung when he slammed into a stop sign (ironic, right?). My friend stopped jumping. He has two kids now, and he said that was part of it. He was worried a bit about getting pulled into that culture for the rest of his life, but he knew older sky divers who didn't party all the time and do insane amounts of cocaine (I hung out with some of his sky diving buddies and dear god, do they love their cocaine). But he had a few other friends die in jumps, and he started contemplating who he was and why he dived. He's now a band director at a community college. Now that he has his own program, his kids, his wife, he just realized it wasn't for him any more.
wyck 9y ago
There is a real downside to this not spoken about. If/when you get hooked into an adrenaline based lifestyle and for some reason have to leave the lifestyle behind (financial, family, injuries) it can be extremely devastating to not do what was in essence keeping you alive. Still worth it but the crash can be worse than the cure, unless you figure out how to persevere gracefully.
ppod 9y ago
If this were true, I wonder how many people would have taken the first step toward curing their depression a few seconds before ending their own life.
- kirubakaran 9y ago
  "I instantly realized that everything in my life that I’d thought was unfixable was totally fixable -- except for having just jumped." https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/10/13/jumpers https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/10/13/jumpers
hordeallergy 9y ago
Different experience here. I did one dive. Nice view from up there. Not very exciting. Falling out of the plane was good fun, felt a bit nuts. The fall was very pleasant. Opening the chute was fun. The canopy ride was boring and uncomfortable hanging in the harness. Saw the video of the guy who jumped before me, he was woohooing all the way.
tbabb 9y ago
Between middle and high school, I went to summer camp, where there was a ropes course. I remember how scary it was to jump from the 60 foot platform, even knowing that the zipline harness would catch me. It was an experience of being very scared, but pushing through the fear, and then getting the instant reward of how much fun it is to whoosh through the air and accomplish something difficult. Though probably less scary than skydiving, it is still considerably scarier than most things people ever encounter in everyday life. And you can't quietly shy away from it, either, the way you often can from social situations or intimidating opportunities or novelty in real life; you're standing there on the platform, everyone is watching and cheering you on; and success is binary-- either you jump, or you are shamefully lowered back down to the ground (which is still probably not much less scary anyway). I didn't think of that experience of being very important, but it occurred to me recently that many people have never had that experience-- of being very scared, but pushing through it. It resets your baseline for fear, and it shows you what you are capable of. It is, I think, important training for the skill of managing any strong emotion, but particularly fear. It is a kind of experience I think everyone should have in their life, ideally early on.
EADGBE 9y ago
Having three kids cured my depression. It often feels like falling out of a plane.

106 points by montrose 9y ago

There's an incredible amount of euphoria when you conquer your fears.

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 similar, if shorter in duration than 3 weeks on K2 or something.

phkahler 9y ago
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.
- jcollins 9y ago
  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.
- passivepinetree 9y ago
  The only problem is learning to fly is prohibitively expensive for most people. Skydiving is a much cheaper activity.
  - shkkmo 9y ago
    > The only problem is learning to fly is prohibitively expensive for most people. Skydiving is a much cheaper activity. I assume you are talking about flying an typical small airplane? You can learn to paraglide for well under $2k.
  - petre 9y ago
    Paragliding is even cheaper.
briandear 9y ago
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!
base698 9y ago
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.
- daveoflynn 9y ago
  Likewise - in the decade I was active in the sport of skydiving, I heard plenty of stories around using the sport to help with stress, depression, and other issues back in the “real world”. Never heard of a tandem jumper saying that, but then, how big is my sample size?
- AndrewKemendo 9y ago
  My guess is that it's cause they gained a community - that seems to be the #1 thing that keeps people in the sport. I did MFF and got my A License and stopped jumping because I honestly didn't enjoy the community.

dbg31415 9y ago

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 "Skydiving helped me stave off having depressive episodes..." would be more accurate.

ephemeral8853 9y ago
“Stave off episodes” or “cure” is a modelling distinction. If the sense of depression doesn’t cloud over a life anymore, they both amount to the same thing. There’s nothing trivializing about that. It’s just an individual’s story of coping, recovery, and hope.
Razengan 9y ago
As someone with a sourceless depression for many years, I also used to think (and still do sometimes) that death/oblivion is the only "real" cure, and anything else is a temporary distraction from the problem. Lately I've been trying to see it from a different direction: What am I really looking for when I harbor suicidal thoughts? Escape, and more specifically: Freedom. It's not that I WANT to die; on the contrary, I want to live forever! There's too many things I want to do and see. I want to get off this planet and learn what's beyond. But I can't, and in the back of my mind I feel there's no point to anything. I like to create but nothing lasts forever. So I'd be content with just being able to explore and discover as much as I can, as long as I can. Skydiving definitely gives a sense of freedom, as well as some degree of control – I could choose to throw away my parachute and splat on the ground – but I suppose the rush of physical sensations might make one feel alive enough at the moment to not want to die just then..
sebcat 9y ago
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?

jdietrich 9y ago

I'd love to see a clinical trial on this. What's a suitable placebo for jumping out of a plane, I wonder?

RobertRoberts 9y ago
"There has never been a double blind test on the efficacy of parachutes!" -Internet Scientist Not sure I'd trust a parachute without proper testing.
- kolinko 9y ago
  We have some retrospective research though, although I'm not sure the causation was shown, not just correlation.
astura 9y ago
"Indoor skydiving?" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_wind_tunnel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_wind_tunnel

mixmastamyk 9y ago

Definitely, would do it regularly if not for my daughter. Cheapest therapy ever, ~$200. Everything in life gets the reset button. Just so happy to be ALIVE. I kissed the ground on my return, haha. A friend asked how long it lasts, personally was about two months, but there are still residual effects years later.

nstj 9y ago
when you do have jumped more than 10 times it's only $25 a shot (even cheaper if you BYO parachute)
PappaPatat 9y ago
The article describes me. Your comment too. As to the article: I found my cure with skydiving, the complete and utter helplessness and giving in to the powers that be made me loose my depressing desire to (believe that I can) exercise control over everything, which would never really work, which would make me feel inadequate, which fueled my depression, which let to less power to control, which... you get the idea. While skydiving I know I've given up control (on a controlled moment) and that helps me deal with other moments where I observe that same loss. As to your comment: Since I have kids, I do not feel I can risk my own live as much since they somewhat depend on me and I owe them my presence. Thus I stopped doing it regularly (once a month) and now only do it when I need it (once a every year up to once every 5 years). That's "how long it lasts" for me.
piracy1 9y ago
Statistically parachuting is not all that dangerous. You're about as likely to die from running a marathon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromort https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromort

taneq 9y ago

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

GoAwayPeter 9y ago
I suppose for the same reason as is speculated in the article; you can only focus on the moment when you're on a bike.
reificator 9y ago
I'm not a speed demon, I wear reasonable motorcycle gear, and I don't do anything for the sake of danger/thrillseeking. But getting back in the saddle last year after a long hiatus and using it as my primary means of transport has done wonders for my state of mind. (And my wallet for that matter, which relieves stress, which then comes around to state of mind again.) I've got more than enough storage to go grocery shopping, I've got music through my helmet (Sena doesn't have much competition, but I don't have many complaints) and I've got nice warm clothes so cold is not an issue. I do miss it on days when there's snow on the ground or low visibility, but around here that doesn't last more than a few days, a week at most.
sampl 9y ago
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.
marssaxman 9y ago
It works for me, in a really remarkable way. My bike broke down twice last year, and I couldn't ride for over a week each time; it was really remarkable to notice how dramatically my mood improved when I got the machine back. I hadn't noticed that I was getting depressed, but I sure noticed the feeling after I got back on two wheels - like drawing in a deep breath, as clarity and calm returned. Sometimes I use the bike that way on purpose, not to go anywhere but simply to improve my mood. A quick run out east on the highway, up to the mountains and back, will usually knock me out of whatever loop I've got stuck in. I think it has something to do with the way that you have to stay present, immersed in the moment, aware of everything going on around you; there's still some room in the brain for higher-level thought, but you have a base of calm presence to work from.

PeterStuer 9y ago

To me (IANA...) this reads like 'Sky Diving relieved my anxiety which cause(s/d) my depression'.

pygy_ 9y ago
... which is compatible with the recent understanding that depression is (usually?) the result of being worn out by chronic stress.
- kolinko 9y ago
  Worth remembering that it's not always true - some people have genetic predispositions if I'm not mistaken.
  - rfugger 9y ago
    The two aren't mutually exclusive. You can have a genetic disposition to being worn out by chronic stress.
- PeterStuer 9y ago
  I'm not arguing that is bad. Just pointing out that for non-anxiety (I think anxiety and stress are still something different) related depressions this might not help.

toomanybeersies 9y ago

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/australia-fights-drug-addiction-with-plane-flying-lessons http://www.bbc.com/news/video_and_audio/headlines/43369891/a...

oofoe 9y ago
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."
- toomanybeersies 9y ago
  I suspect that the life expectancy of a pilot is longer than that of a meth addict though...

pbalau 9y ago

Sailing did this for me.

telesilla 9y ago
Sailing is an incredible way to right yourself. I'm reminded of Bernard Moitessier, who almost won the 1968/69 round-the-world race but quit and decided to keep on sailing: why return to civilisation when you've found true peace already? It's a really great example of how the way we live in modern times just isn't great for our psyche. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Moitessier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Moitessier
- pbalau 9y ago
  You know, I grew up reading one of his books, "Un Vagabond des mers du sud" (in Romanian "Hoinar in marile sudului"). I could bet you a fiver that he is one of the reasons I became obsessed with sailing since a very young age. After moving to London I figured out I am in the best place ever to learn sailing. And here I am now, Level 3 RYA dinghy sailing + just got my power boat license. I will be always grateful to my sailing club (North London Sailing Association) for introducing me to the English sailing culture and helping me get over some crap in my life.

scotty79 9y ago

I wonder what gives you grater chance of dying, depression or skydiving?

reificator 9y ago
Purely on gut instinct I'd put my money on depression.
- RobertRoberts 9y ago
  Bad depression can also hurt every day. Bad skying diving only once. (YEMV)
  - scotty79 9y ago
    I'm not trying to say that it's not worth it, because I know depression is horrible daily. Although when skydiving even when everything goes perfect you still hit ground at pretty high speeds. It must be hard for spine and joints and probably can also cause some daily problems especially at later age.
    - rlpb 9y ago
      > Although when skydiving even when everything goes perfect you still hit ground at pretty high speeds. No, that's not right. If you can land well, it's certainly no harsher to your body than jumping off a step. If the wind is light then you might have to run a bit. That's all. Source: I have made hundreds of parachute landings like this. You might be thinking of round parachutes, which today are not used by sport skydivers.
wellboy 9y ago
Skydiving death rate is around 1/1,000,000, depression is around 1/20 IIRC.
- scotty79 9y ago
  Depression - between 1/100 and 1/14 (lifetime) Skydiving - 1/150000 per jump. At least according to: https://www.hhs.gov/answers/mental-health-and-substance-abuse/does-depression-increase-risk-of-suicide/index.html https://www.hhs.gov/answers/mental-health-and-substance-abus... and https://www.google.pl/amp/s/www.seeker.com/amphtml/how-common-are-skydiving-accidents-1765419215.html https://www.google.pl/amp/s/www.seeker.com/amphtml/how-commo...

zwischenzug 9y ago

Darwin used to immerse his head in cold water - the Victorian 'reset button' for depression.

FabHK 9y ago

I find flying little airplanes has a meditative element. One does not ruminate idly while flying, but is effortlessly focused on aviating, navigating, and monitoring in the here and now. Very calming.

sjg007 9y ago

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.

908087 9y ago

Skydiving and BASE jumping can be both a cure for and a cause of depression, depending on how long you spend doing it and how many of your friends go in during that time.

JoeDaDude 9y ago

Former skydiver here, 1400+ jumps logged. The effects of skydiving on you mental state are well known to us, though rarely put into writing. I'll defer to Charles Lindbergh, who had a way with words (in addition to airplanes) to sum it up [1]: "When I decided that I too must pass through the experience of a parachute jump, life rose to a higher level, to a sort of exhilarated calmness. The thought of crawling out onto the struts and wires hundreds of feet above the earth, and then giving up even that tenuous hold of safety and of substance, left me a feeling of anticipation mixed with dread, of confidence restrained by caution, of courage salted through with fear. How tightly should one hold onto life? How loosely give it rein? What gain was there for such a risk? I would have to pay in money for hurling my body into space. There would be no crowd to watch and applaud my landing. Nor was there any scientific objective to be gained. No, there was deeper reason for wanting to jump, a desire I could not explain. It was that quality that led me into aviation in the first place — it was a love of the air and sky and flying, the lure of adventure, the appreciation of beauty. It lay beyond the descriptive words of man — where immortality is touched through danger, where life meets death on equal plane; where man is more than man, and existence both supreme and valueless at the same instant." [1] The Spirit of St Louis, Charles Lindbergh, 1953

djsumdog 9y ago
I got to see a very good friend of mine a few months ago from my hometown; someone I grew up with. He got really into Skydiving when we were in University. He kept trying to get me to jump. Guy spent a lot of time and money in the summer doing jumps and getting his various certificates. He got to the point where he was qualified to pack his own chute. He had one bad landing and shattered his leg. Apparently paramedics have no sympathy for people who injury themselves jumping out of a plane. He did jump for a few years after recovering from that. His roommate screwed up a landing and punctured his lung when he slammed into a stop sign (ironic, right?). My friend stopped jumping. He has two kids now, and he said that was part of it. He was worried a bit about getting pulled into that culture for the rest of his life, but he knew older sky divers who didn't party all the time and do insane amounts of cocaine (I hung out with some of his sky diving buddies and dear god, do they love their cocaine). But he had a few other friends die in jumps, and he started contemplating who he was and why he dived. He's now a band director at a community college. Now that he has his own program, his kids, his wife, he just realized it wasn't for him any more.

wyck 9y ago

There is a real downside to this not spoken about. If/when you get hooked into an adrenaline based lifestyle and for some reason have to leave the lifestyle behind (financial, family, injuries) it can be extremely devastating to not do what was in essence keeping you alive. Still worth it but the crash can be worse than the cure, unless you figure out how to persevere gracefully.

ppod 9y ago

If this were true, I wonder how many people would have taken the first step toward curing their depression a few seconds before ending their own life.

kirubakaran 9y ago
"I instantly realized that everything in my life that I’d thought was unfixable was totally fixable -- except for having just jumped." https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/10/13/jumpers https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/10/13/jumpers

hordeallergy 9y ago

Different experience here. I did one dive. Nice view from up there. Not very exciting. Falling out of the plane was good fun, felt a bit nuts. The fall was very pleasant. Opening the chute was fun. The canopy ride was boring and uncomfortable hanging in the harness. Saw the video of the guy who jumped before me, he was woohooing all the way.

tbabb 9y ago

Between middle and high school, I went to summer camp, where there was a ropes course. I remember how scary it was to jump from the 60 foot platform, even knowing that the zipline harness would catch me. It was an experience of being very scared, but pushing through the fear, and then getting the instant reward of how much fun it is to whoosh through the air and accomplish something difficult. Though probably less scary than skydiving, it is still considerably scarier than most things people ever encounter in everyday life. And you can't quietly shy away from it, either, the way you often can from social situations or intimidating opportunities or novelty in real life; you're standing there on the platform, everyone is watching and cheering you on; and success is binary-- either you jump, or you are shamefully lowered back down to the ground (which is still probably not much less scary anyway). I didn't think of that experience of being very important, but it occurred to me recently that many people have never had that experience-- of being very scared, but pushing through it. It resets your baseline for fear, and it shows you what you are capable of. It is, I think, important training for the skill of managing any strong emotion, but particularly fear. It is a kind of experience I think everyone should have in their life, ideally early on.

EADGBE 9y ago

Having three kids cured my depression. It often feels like falling out of a plane.