The majority of my posts over the last few months have been scuba-related. I’ve written a lot about what I’ve done, but not a lot about why I’m doing it. I have a couple more posts about my PADI Divemaster course in Australia planned (here are Part 1 and Part 2), but before I fisnish those, I wanted to reflect a bit on what scuba diving means to me.
Some background info
If you don’t know already, I have depression. I’ve written about it a few times, but want to do a better job sharing that part of my life, so why not start now?
I’ve had depression for a while, but only started getting treatment in February 2015. Since then, I’ve been seeing a therapist weekly, taking medicines (although I was off meds for a while I’m back on Lexapro now), and working on keeping myself involved in activities that are helpful for me. Scuba diving falls into that last category.
Things that help my depression
Generally, activities that help my depression have one or more of the following features:
- They get me out of the house
- They force me to socialize with other people
- They include physical activity
- They require me to be outdoors
- They have a meditative component
- They give me something to work towards
- They encourage introspection
Examples of activities that meet some of these requirements include swimming, hiking, yoga, writing, and teaching.
How scuba diving fits in
For me, scuba diving happens to meet not just a few, but all of the criteria I listed above. Obviously, it gets me out of the house (and often out of the country!) and requires me to spend significant time outdoors (often on a boat). There are always other people involved, whether at the dive shop, on the boat, or wherever I’m staying. There is also an inherent physical aspect, because you have to move equipment around to get prepped and do at least a bit of kicking underwater. But that physical component is balanced (for me) with a meditative component; after all, the more relaxed you are and the easier your breathing is, the more amazing things you will notice underwater and the longer your air will last.
The training side of scuba diving has added the last two elements for me: something to work towards and encouragement for introspection. My current goal is to become a certified scuba instructor; along the way, I’ve had to get my advanced open water, rescue diver, and divemaster certifications. During and after each of these courses, I have the opportunity to reflect on what I’m doing that works well and what I can improve on. I also use the experiences to think on a bigger scale about what makes me happy and healthy (as I’m doing now!).
A good time for a thank you
Many of you reading this have helped me in my fight against depression, often without even realizing it. I owe a thank you in particular to anybody who has ever been a dive buddy, dive instructor, or dive friend, and also to anybody who’s not a diver but has let me tell them all about diving anyway.
And now that I’ve explained why I love diving so much, maybe you’ll have a bit more patience with all of my dive-related blog posts! Now you know that every time I write about diving, I’m wrapping up another winning battle in the ongoing war I’m fighting with depression 🙂
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