Synopsis: As a veteran and sailor, I have had adventures for many lifetimes. Those came with downsides also, and years of life at sea take their toll on your mental health. Many years went by before I got help, but I am on the road to working on myself. I don’t say recovery because you can never go back to where I came from, you can only work forward.
Background: I spent many years living and sailing the world’s oceans. I have suffered mental health decline and struggled hard to get through where I am today. I’m sharing this today because I don’t want it to be a stigma and I want people to see that I am not some stereotype of a character of a symptom. It has taken years of experimenting with medication to get to the point where I can be almost done with my Master’s degree, even though I want to give up almost every day. Not from it being too hard, but lack of motivation to do anything. Most days I want to just sleep on the couch, which I have read affects your mental health also. As tired and worn out as I am, I get up, most days and go to work and come home and do my homework. There are a lot of downtimes though, as I don’t have much time for hobbies, a lot of it is sitting in silence, listening to another one of my disabilities, tinnitus, ring in my ear. Sometimes though, I remember to put on the record player and get lost in the music for a couple of records and do nothing but let my mind go blank. It’s a reprieve from the everyday. I guess some folks will use meditation, I use this the same way.
Content:
Video created on Adobe Premiere Pro
Spoken word created on Audacity
Cue cards created on Canva
Video Credit:
Crossing the Drake Passage by T. Cullen, CC BY-NC 2.0
Video of Typhoon 21 from Himawari 8, 4 September 2018 by Stuart Rankin, CC BY-NC 2.0
Photo Credit:
Photos of myself are my own, all rights are reserved
17106-N-RC734-244 by Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet, Public Domain Mark 1.0
Bipolar by Marina Pardo, CC BY-NC 2.0
bipolar by jorge gonz@lez, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
bipolar by Rene Walter, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Bipolaridad que sostiene un neuroticismo común by NaIaRaZ, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Child Proof by Bryan Costin, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
171115-N-WM647-0176 by U.S. Pacific Fleet, CC BY-NC 2.0
Medication by Brigitte De Soto, CC BY-NC 2.0
Medication by Gatis Gribusts, CC BY-NC 2.0
Record Store Day. by caren_ep, CC BY-NC 2.0
Spinnin’ by Nikola Plejic, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
The Return of Vinyl Browsing 02 by byronv2, CC BY-NC 2.0
Vinyl by Anders Printz, CC0 1.0
vinyl. by Risa, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Sound Credit:
126 Numerology Metal 3 C.wav by fran_ky, CC BY 3.0
Boat Violently Beaching onto Shore – WITH reverb.wav by WelvynZPorterSamples, CC0 1.0
Happy Background Music by Migfus20, CC BY 3.0
piano background 1.wav by Nick_Simon-Adams, CC0 1.0
rock music loop.mp3 by Prime45, CC0 1.0