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Skydiving & Depression, does it help?

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Hope this is the right forum for this type of question.

My 20 year old daughter suffers from what I would characterize as moderate depression. Which means she's on medication but still has periods where nothing seems to help much. She's not the 'can't even make it out of bed' level, or suicide attempt level, but definitely has bad days to deal with.

I was thinking skydiving might be therapeutic - something to giver her a lift when she's feeling down.

I'm curious if there is any consensus on this at all?

FWIW I'm not a skydiver currently, but am seriously thinking about getting into the sport (have a good friend that's been jumping 20 years), and going through the AFF with my daughter seems like it could be a very enjoyable experience.

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i dont know how to say this in a nice way.
but..
give her a tandemjump first, that means atleast one of them wants to pull the cord.
im not implying that she is suicidal but depression can do the craziest things.

i will keep my fingers crossed that it will work.

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it has changed my life, and it all started with a tandem for me. I suggest a tandem first, only because I truly believe its a good idea for anyone interested in learning to skydive.

I wont get into the details in a public forum, but yes, I suffer from a similar disorder and for me if I do get "down" I just don't jump, and really just cuz when I feel "down" nothing seems fun, not even jumping. lol but as you can see the "down" periods have been pretty rare lately seeing as I have been jumping my ass off for the last 4 months. (I got my A last spring but since Feb '09 I have done about 125 jumps)

I can honestly say skydiving has changed my life completely, and not just when I am at the dz, its affected everything I think or do!

btw, I am 41 now, my daughter who I did my first jump with, (a tandem, well we were on the plane together) is 20. She has 34 jumps and works at the pro shop at our dz. I have done about 4 jumps with her so far. Even better this Saturday we are both working for the dz, she will be gearing up the tandems, and I will train them, and for the that 5 jumps each!! I love my DZ!

fyi, after our tandem, I came back 3 months later, jammed thru my A, got a rig, and got her thru AFF and eventually she got her A (teenage girls dont do ANYTHING fast!) anyways I suggest a tandem for you both then see where it goes, some peeps come down and seem to not be impressed, while most people like it; only a few like it enuff to get their A lic.

good luck and the best to both u and ur daughter :)

"Tell ya the truth, I don't think this is a brains kind of operation."

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I'd say yes. It helps me anyway. Not just the jumping but the friends you make. For me, whether I jump or not, just being at the DZ helps me forget about everything that is bringing me down. Be warned though when you can't make a skydive for one reason or another and you can't be at the DZ its just one more thing that adds to the depression. It probably different for other people though.

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I knw two jumpers with long standing depression. One found that skydiving completely stopped the depression. The other found that medication was required, skydiving didn't help (skydiving was fun, but it didn't help the underlying problem).

Good luck to both of you.
The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

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Yes!
I decided to learn and to jump due to a heavy heart. An old flame fell into my life at perhaps the most inappropriate time possible (7 year itch and mid life crysis). I felt and in a way still feel emotionally and physically beaten up.
Doesn't help that by my nature, being Persian, I'm moody and prone to bouts of being down.

That and work has sucked donkey dick for the past 6 months.

But from the moment I set my food at the DZ I started feeling great! The guys and gals there were super friendly and were very cool.

Then came the jump......by the time my but slid across the grass.....i was able to breath and life looked up. No rush, no wooo hooo.....just a total feeling of Zen.

So yeah, give it a shot! And hay I know it doesn’t' mean jack squat coming from someone you don't even know but.....thanks for being a great parent and caring about your kid. Most parents would just call it being emotional and a part of being a teenager. And well...sometimes.....it's not.

Also, on a side note…..why don’t you jump with her  but only after she said it’s ok.
Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay.

The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

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I wont get into the details in a public forum, but yes, I suffer from a similar disorder and for me if I do get "down" I just don't jump, and really just cuz when I feel "down" nothing seems fun, not even jumping.



That's exactly how I feel. If I force myself to jump, things generally don't go the way I want, and then I get frustrated and end up leaving the DZ in a bigger funk then when I got there. I've gone out to the DZ hoping that just being there would get me out of my funk, and when it didn't, I left without jumping.

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i have only done one tandem jump, and i'm definitely no expert, but i can tell you my experience-

i can't say that i was depressed beforehand, but i know that i was just barely "half awake." my life was in a "boring, autopilot, no reason to get very excited or motivated" sort of a place. then my son bought me a surprise tandem jump, and afterwards, and ever since, i have felt so alive, and energized and empowered. it literally woke me up and completely changed every aspect of my life for the better. i love the feeling for life that i have now, and i can't wait to start aff in a few weeks.

i also agree with the other posters who have suggested that your daughter agree with the idea first, and that she go tandem to try it out.

good luck and i hope your daughter feels better soon!
Jennifer

don't ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive. and then go do that, because what the world needs is people that come alive.

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My 20 year old daughter suffers from what I would characterize as moderate depression. Which means she's on medication but still has periods where nothing seems to help much. She's not the 'can't even make it out of bed' level, or suicide attempt level, but definitely has bad days to deal with.

I was thinking skydiving might be therapeutic - something to giver her a lift when she's feeling down.



Many of us feel better after a jumping day/weekend, and worse when we're not getting there as much. But we're a preselected population. If it didn't have that impact on us, we'd likely have quit.

20 yo's have to find something to feel passionate about. It doesn't have to be skydiving, just something. Diving, backpacking, cycling...just introduce her to new experiences and let something happen. But certainly for the tandem - she has to want to do it.

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Depends on the root cause of her depression.

I've had several bouts of moderate depression in my past, but that had less to do with chemical imbalances (tho I'm sure that's part of it) than it had to do with my unhappiness with the state and direction of my life. Skydiving came along for me right about the same time that I was resolving several issues that precipitated my unhappiness. (Like, for example, finding a meaningful career.) So while skydiving definitely has had an incredibly positive effect on my life it, by itself, did not eradicate my issues with depression. It was and remains just one (big) part of what makes me happy.

Skydiving can definitely be life-altering, but you first need to have a skydiving shaped hole in your life.

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Fresh air, nice people, it's exciting.....it can't hurt?
Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay.

The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

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Fresh air, nice people, it's exciting.....it can't hurt?



I was there when one of my friends went in because he didn't pull. You can't help speculating about whether that was intentional when he talked about dying minutes before. Taking up skydiving while in a major depressive episode is not the best idea.

Another one died in a plane crash.

And I've lost track of how many injuries I've been there for. Broken tibia, fibia, femur, sacrum, cocyx, vertebrae, pelvis, wrist, shoulder.

It can hurt a lot.

Skydiving will boost your endorphins and dopamine levels so you feel better at least temporarily, and give you goals which you can accomplish (first solo jump, successful formations, etc.)

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Nothing gets me out of bed quicker than on a day that i am going jumping. Take her on a jump for sure. Who knows it may just change her life for the better. The only time us jumpers are depressed while at a dropzone is when the weather is crap and we cant jump. good luck.

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It would be dangerous and presumptuous for any of we lay people to suggest skydiving will help and that you and your daughter should go ahead. That's the caveat. Having said that, however, I can say that skydiving has probably saved more lives than it has taken. It has most definitely helped through the occasional (and emotionally devastating) depressions we all get as we lose relationships, or jobs, or gone through hard times. But as for real clinical depression unless anyone is an expert here I'd hesitate to say skydiving is a cure or even a help. It could well be and I would not be surprised at all if it does. I am simply reminding you that so far I have not seen any credentials added to names here and while we all have you & your daughter's best interests at heart and we all so much love and believe in our sport and its curative properties, I don't think any of us can actually be responsible for dispensing sage advice.
The above is just ass covering. My emotional response is that you should go for it. You may well know your daughter best and be better positioned to evaluate her depression and its effects on her. If it is as mild as you say (and hope) then I van say without reservation that skydiving could well be the powerful enough mojo to do the trick.
And yes, jumping with your daughter, when that becomes possible after instruction, will be a huge rush. A brilliant bonding experience as something you two share, an intimacy between you. This is priceless.
Best of luck in this. I'd love a follow-up report if you don't mind.

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I'm no expert but i can say the day i started skydiving i chucked my meds in the trash,
never needed them again. Funny thing for me was that i didn't land on the same world under canopy that i took off from in the plane. When i landed after my first S/L jump everything seemed brighter and i couldn't figer out for the life of me why i wasted so much time being unhappy. I can't say it's the same for everyone but my life did a 180. when i was 20 i hated being me. Now i wouldn't trade who i am for anything.
EARTH! Short bus of the universe,
since the year T+10.3 billion!

REV. DUDEMIESTER D.S.#120

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Skydiving should not be used to treat depression. The depression must be treated and in remission for one year before jumping is even considered.

Ed Jackson MD
Psychiatrist



Care to elaborate?
From your response I assume you have data from studies performed to support it? If so I'd be very interested in the results and appreciative of any links you might be able to provide.

If not what exactly are your primary concerns?

Just from a sample size perspective I would have a very difficult time accepting the assertion that suicide risk is increased, given the rarity of 'no-pulls' (and even some of those are likely brain lock) in the burn-in statistics.

They just don't happen often enough to be able to draw any valid conclusions IMO

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Guys I was just saying getting out of the house, getting some fresh air and meeting new people may help and as such getting out of the house , getting some fresh air and meeting new people can't hurt.

Sure yes the sport is dangerous. Perhaps more so than most sports. But as with most hobbies / sports it's the getting out, meeting new people and getting some fresh air. And those things in them selves won't hurt and may help.
Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay.

The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

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Hope this is the right forum for this type of question.

My 20 year old daughter suffers from what I would characterize as moderate depression. Which means she's on medication but still has periods where nothing seems to help much. She's not the 'can't even make it out of bed' level, or suicide attempt level, but definitely has bad days to deal with.

I was thinking skydiving might be therapeutic - something to giver her a lift when she's feeling down.

I'm curious if there is any consensus on this at all?

FWIW I'm not a skydiver currently, but am seriously thinking about getting into the sport (have a good friend that's been jumping 20 years), and going through the AFF with my daughter seems like it could be a very enjoyable experience.



I don't normally tell people this sort of thing, but to answer your question; yes it can help.

Personally, I'm pretty shy and have had what I feel is a hard life. It's not that I've not had food to eat, it's just that I've been treated horribly by people for most of my life. So, it can lead to depression and lonely feelings and it doesn't help when you don't have many friends.

What skydiving has done for me is allow me to be among a lot of people that share a common interest. Skydivers are a breed you might call rare. Most of us except everyone, no matter who they are and that's one of the things I enjoy about these people. There are definitely social status quotas in this community like anything else, but much less than anything else you'll find.

A lot of people might try going out and meeting people, but without common interests, it's a waste of time for most people unless you're looking for a one night stand at a local bar. This is definitely the community to find just that and the sport and the people are both therapeutic in their own ways.

I couldn't quit this sport entirely because, I'd lose that and everything else it offers. Without it I'm just a geek that can play the hell out of a guitar. I'm doing something I love and that works wonders for a persons' life. :P

Normally I tend to avoid the drop zone when I'm depressed, but when I actually get off my butt and go anyway, I find that I've escaped whatever is bothering me.
Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033
Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

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