A cure for depression?

in #life6 years ago

Hey guys, I know what you're thinking. What's with the title? Haven't you been posting about amazing adventures? Yes I have and I am grateful for every single one of them.

But there's something I've not shared untill now. Before I went traveling, when I was working and felt like I was stuck in a dead end job, single and my freinds slowly slipping away into their married lives. I strongly believe that I was going through stages of depression.
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No it wasn't officialy declared by a Doctor, partly because I didn't go to the Doctor but trust me when you're depressed all you can think of subconciously is negatives, you just make up the Doctors analyses in your mind and "predict" a miserable future. It's horrible.

You get the responses from people who are supposed to care about you like;
"man up"
"Stop being a drama queen"
"Don't be rediculous"
"You're probably just going through a bad patch"

(yeh, no shit)

Now ask yourself this, what do people sadly end up doing when they are at a serious stage? Well they look to end it by any means possible. Once they believe they've ran out of options there's only one left. Death.

This got me thinking, the most common method of suicide that comes to mind is jumping off something high right?

So here's my advice;

Ready?

Here it comes....

....

Do it!
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Just make sure you're attached to a bungee 😉

Seriously, Bunjee jumping is one of the most incredible thing's you'll ever experience! It WILL get your heart racing! You WILL feel alive again the second you lean forward.


Put it this way, I had a Funnelweb spider crawl over my foot in Sydney. In case you didn't know Funnelwebs are one of the most deadly spiders in the world and can kill you yes **KILL** you in less than an hour, males even less. ![image]()

They're not your typical "run away spiders" either, this thing will stand it's ground with aggression.

I knew if it chose to bite me I'd experince the most intense pain I'd ever felt. I knew I'd then have less than an hour to get to hospital.
Yet with me still in a depressed state it didn't scare me one bit.

This is coming from someone that up until then hadn't even been stung by a bee or wasp....yeh the power of depression.




Before I try to explain myself further, you need to understand that I said I would *Never* go bunjee jumping and I mean **NEVER**.

I told myself and others that I'd rather skdive 10 times than risk it. (By the way Skydiving is awasome too), you can check out my views on it here;

esteem://travel/@tomatom/skydiving-in-sydney-de9a9c334e647

So why did I jump?

I only had a month left on my visa in Australia and knew I was going home soon. My work held my job open for me for a whole year without me even asking.

Guess I'm a better swimming teacher than I thought...

Cairns is the only place in the whole of Australia where you can Bunjie and I just happened to be there!

Add on the fact that I knew a girl who worked at the hostel who gave me quite a significant amount off.

Plus the fact my flight was already booked and paid for in advance so I knew it was now or most likely never.

All these signs were one major coincidence I couldn't ignore, so I did.

Simply walking up all those stairs began to make me nervous. 50 meters doesn't look much from below but when you start walking up and get halfway that 50 looks more like 150.

One thing about bunjee jumping is that it's YOU that has to commit. It's not like your attached to an expert like skydiving. Nope, your on your own.

When you fall, it's as if fate takes care of you. You have basically no control during the fall and you know in the back of your mind anything can happen (including things going wrong.

It's one hell of a wake up call!

Here's the video of my first ever bunjie;

It was such an exhilarating experince I wanted to do it again...and again for a total of 3 times in a row.

The scariest of all 3 was by far the bar drop!

This may not look as fancy nor does it look as scary (which is why I wanted to do it) but boy was I wrong.

Despite the fact that I knew I was attached to the rope and in the hands of profesionals, I genuinely felt like I was going to die on this one.

Even though you know it's 50 metres high, the instructors tell you to "look up". By looking up when you let go you lose awareness of the height and it feels as if it's an endless drop. Because of the slack of the rope going feet first, you feel no tention and therefore you can't feel the rope. It basically feels like your legs have been tied up without the bungie. Trust me, if the regular bunjie doesn't scare you this will!

If you wached the video, me shouting f************ck all the way down should be a clue.

This was my last out of the 3 jumps I did as admittedly taggedmy arm on the rope on the way down and I got a bit of rope burn. That's why they cut it out the end of the video as they ask "how was it?" Haha 😅



My second jump and by far the best way to do it in my opinion is the freestyle bunjie. In my case it meant running and jumping off the roof!
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It's about another 5 metres up and i stead of being tied up by the legs it's almost like a baby harness. This means you get a run up and can do a flip if you really want to.

image
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As you get to the bottom you end up in a seated position which is way more comfortable and you have a bit more control.

Here's the video;

All 3 jumps were incredible experiences and they gave me the shock I needed to realise what potential I still had left in me and how I alone was responsible for my future. I told myself it would never happen and yet here I am writing a blog on doing it not once but 3 times!


My message to you is this;

You never truly know what your future is. It's your actions and your actions alone that lead you there.

You have to break out of your comfort zone. Do something crazy like this and realize you are always in controll. Whether you believe it or not.

Remember it's your actions that count. Not your thoughts, not your feelings, not your beliefs.


I hope you've found this helpfull and I'm deadly serious about trying this to help give you the slap you need to snap out of it. Of course, this may mean travelling to a different country but traveling itself is a great experience so do it!

Thank you for reading.

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@tomatom...That was some amazing stuff brother! Loved the videos and more than the videos, I love the boldness is addressing the depression that most will never get the courage to speak of! Although bungie jumping is scary (never done it myself), for many, speaking aloud the words, "I have depression" is equally scary and good for you for setting the great example and I can now understand what jumping could have given you. I felt the excitement just from your videos...will have to try this myself for real. Thanks man for your honest and fun adventure!

Thanks for checking out my post @battleformmyheart
Yes it truly shook me. I did skydiving a few months before and it's honestly not that scary. The thought of doing it is more scary than the actual thing.

I also forgot to mention thst you feel barely any tention in your legs when you bounce back up. All those rumours are lies. The people that say that probably haven't tried it and most likely heard it from someone else...who hasn't done it either.

It's the biggest wake up call you can safely have. Not even the car crash I had came close.

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