Be active, be creative and happiness can be found!
@sports_doug,
@pedalfitruss and I filmed this edit about a month ago. I thought up the idea after hearing the song, Feelin Whitney by Post Malone, because it reminded me of negative times dealing with depression in my life. It also reminded me of what helped me overcome those situations: exercise and creativity.
I’ve witnessed depression destroy many people’s lives and even entire communities. The town I grew up in, Fontana, Ca, was a thriving town in the 1970s because of a steel mill, Kaiser Steel. The mill closed and it drastically changed everyone’s life. There were many suicides during that time that sent the youth of these workers into a depression that was fuelled by meth and alcohol. They in turn grew up addicted and depressed, and the cycle continued into their children. I learned early to make positive out of all the negative surrounding me and to make my own happiness because it’s easy to fall into a destructive pattern. I’ve made mistakes dealing with depression but am very thankful for the outlets that gave me better choices! Be active, be creative and happiness can be found. It works for me!
Other than that, it definitely helps to have someone who understands you need to do this. You can go riding knowing you need it and still feel bad because you've got so much unfinished business kicking around. Or you can actually be encouraged/kicked out because everyone knows this is the only way to keep you in check. I suppose this is what this drone-buddy is supposed to be. That friend why encourages you to go out and have a blast. Because that friend knows you and knows what's best.
The point is, we all, or at least most of us, go through periods of poor mental wellness. Some push through it, by burying or managing, others don't. One of my best buds just about when over the edge this year. He desperately struggled to find professional help because he didn't fit into the "classic" definitions of mental sickness. He actually had an MD tell him that if he admits to being suicidal or makes a threat against a member of his family he can get him help asap, otherwise there were limited options for a well-to-do middle aged man who was simply struggling to cope with all the things life threw at him in a short span of time. The flip side being if he did declare either of those feelings he'd be institutionalized and treated somewhat like a criminal. That's f*cked; we really need to open our minds to different perspectives on mental health.
In the meantime, if we know someone who struggles the best thing we can do is encourage them. I've been there, caught up in life and not wanting to go through the mundane steps to go for a ride - yeah, even when its as simple as putting on shoes and spinning down the road - but my buddy is persistent and keeps opening the door. He makes it easy, offers to pick me up, is flexible in his ride times... gives me less excuses. It works, I get out for a ride, and feel a shitload better for days afterward. I dunno who I'd be without my "drone buddy".
So forget the labels, just be a drone buddy. Somebody in your life will thank you for helping them get out for a ride.
An MD may be able to prescribe medications to help with certain mental health issues, but they are generally not trained much in this area. There are a lot of good (and not so good), trained, licensed mental health experts who can do a whole lot more to help and may also prescribe medication if necessary. Get recommendations if you can, find someone you can converse well with, and ask them about their background and areas of expertise. But be wary of anyone who is willing to just give you medication up front. There are so many downsides to these pills and so many other things to sort out and uncover first. We are complex people are our problems can be complex too. I don't work in this field, I'm just someone who has been through some of these issues too.
Anxiety is a completely different beast from depression. My MD was willing to throw antidepressants at me, but I later found out that my big issue was really anxiety and I'm using completely different tools to handle that
Totally agree! Maybe Tony Bourdain was putting too many weird things in his gut. No disrespect meant, but the food/depression correlation is undeniable. The gut is also the only organ that can operate independently of the central nervous system if I recall correctly. The things that live in there may be our true masters.
BTW Tony was a NYC bike messenger in his teens for a bit.
The big bike and what it takes to ride it safely-ish and well keeps the rest of my life centered and focused. Riding the big bike provides an adrenaline rush, an out of control feeling, a healthy risk. It literally physically replaces everything that drink and drugs provide.
Also, I went to Fontana recently, your trails are awesome, a table top and pump track playground that close to the parking lot? Heavenly.
Thank you for all your hard work and thank you again for being so open. You are an inspiration and greatly appreciated influence on my life.
First of all, getting hit by that car triggered ADHD. People had been telling me that for years but because it was something people were saying about whoever was a bit more active than standard, I didn't quite want to believe it. Not want to believe it, because I was a bit scared of needing medication. If medication is going to mellow me down, what will be left of me? And how am I going to deal with that if I don't even recognize myself anymore. And well, I had found my ways to make things work for me. Back in the days, a coach said to me once. "When you're doing the dishes, don't think about the race. Because when you do, then when you're racing, your mind will be doing the dishes." It is one thing that helped me massively through a time when multitasking was considered the great quality of the new generation (which everyone wanted to prove they possessed). "Sorry, could you repeat what you just said? I was multitasking." So yeah, this approach got me a long way but at some point it is going to crash. I simply couldn't stay concentrated during long powerpoint presentations with dim light, no matter how much I was firing myself up before and between lectures. It must have appeared like a boxer just before a fight. To then fall asleep twenty minutes into the lecture, no matter how many friends I had collected around me nudging me when they saw it happen. So after these lectures I was pissed at myself that I had to learn everything from the textbook again. Not to mention those three hour exams, no way I could stay concentrated for so long. So yeah, I definitely think I had subconsciously developed ways to come a long way. But it just doesn't get you past those final hurdles when you're studying aerospace engineering. It was when I met my girlfriend who's a pedagogue. She was surprised to find out that I didn't know I had ADHD, because according to her it was quite apparent. And she pointed me at some other symptoms besides the hyperactivity. It turns out people with ADHD indeed study better with intense music like death metal (whereas people without ADHD perform much worse when exposed to these tunes). I quit my study to become a high school math teacher and get my certification in the process. Went well and was quite busy. But I had also been diagnosed and got medication, which didn't turn out to be as scary as I thought it would be. And suddenly I was passing exams. So I finished what was left to do of aerospace engineering (whilst working and having two little girls to care for) and became a teacher in higher education (teaching mechanics, production, materials etc to industrial design engineering students).
So with that kind of long winded context, it brings us back to that depression theme. The article/movie is about, if you're feeling depressed, get some exercise in (with the help of a buddy) and it will make you feel better again. When I'm usually feeling good with my active lifestyle, good food, proper music, cold showers and great company (so basically doing what is going to make one feel better) but feel much worse when that isn't there, does that indicate depression? Not that I want that or that feel I even need to worry about it. But with that ADHD, even though people tell me they're impressed with what I managed to do, I'm kind of pissed I worked so hard and went through so much frustration when there was such an easy solution. So this article just got me thinking, maybe it is good for me to learn this about myself too.
@Voreis Yeah as @endlessblockades already mentioned, it turns out to be the intestines, not the stomach. I read part of an article (in a waiting room until I was called in) that the gut feeling is real. There really are many nerves there which transfer the signals on to the brain, but also react to it which is what we feel. And obviously our food influences everything too. I quickly learned to avoid fast sugars though, being a vegetarian, I much later learned the importance of essential fats and proteins. I think I've got that almost down now too though I'm pretty sure it won't be perfect.
Thanks for making it this far.
TL;DR: Thanks for making it this far too. Basically, the question is whether when I only feel good when I am regularly active, I'm actually constantly fighting some kind of depression.
You didn't know it at the time, but I grew up watching racing and despite being 27 at the time, I was star stuck and feeling like I was living a MTB dream. You pointed out this weird bank on the side of a fire road and started doing drift/brake slides up it. I wasn't sure about the choice, but who was I to argue? We went back and forth and it ended up being a great thing to session and great photos came out of it. Yours ended up a Specialized Ad, mines on my wall at home.
That day is one of my fondest memories of riding,
Thanks
Niner got such an asset getting Kirt a bike. For so long they've been like one of the least "cool" companies out there (doing only 29ers doesnt help, and their most outstanding ones aren't renowned for being naughty). Voreis is exactly what they need to spice it up a bit.
Mids for all