
Sky Diving Cured My Depression - montrose
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/13/opinion/depression-sky-diving-dubai.html
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hprotagonist
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.

~~~
base698
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
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?

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JoeDaDude
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
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.

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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.

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mixmastamyk
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.

~~~
PappaPatat
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.

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

~~~
reificator
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.

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

~~~
oofoe
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
I suspect that the life expectancy of a pilot is longer than that of a meth
addict though...

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tbabb
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.

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ppod
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
"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)

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

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

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

~~~
pygy_
... which is compatible with the recent understanding that depression is
(usually?) the result of being worn out by chronic stress.

~~~
kolinko
Worth remembering that it's not always true - some people have genetic
predispositions if I'm not mistaken.

~~~
rfugger
The two aren't mutually exclusive. You can have a genetic disposition to being
worn out by chronic stress.

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FabHK
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.

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wyck
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.

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hordeallergy
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.

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

~~~
RobertRoberts
"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
We have some retrospective research though, although I'm not sure the
causation was shown, not just correlation.

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EADGBE
Having three kids cured _my_ depression.

It often feels like falling out of a plane.

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scotty79
I wonder what gives you grater chance of dying, depression or skydiving?

~~~
reificator
Purely on gut instinct I'd put my money on depression.

~~~
RobertRoberts
Bad depression can also hurt every day. Bad skying diving only once. (YEMV)

~~~
scotty79
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
> 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.

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908087
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.

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pbalau
Sailing did this for me.

~~~
telesilla
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
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.

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dbg31415
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.

~~~
sebcat
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?

~~~
sjg007
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.

~~~
nkoren
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.

