Post adventure depression

[Ant71]

Hi there everyone. I wondered if anyone had any experience with this. Last year I had an awesome adventure that I had been training for and planning for a long time. When I got back home and went back to work I crashed. I read some article last night about post adventure depression and it seems to describe what I am going through only all the articles say it only lasts a few weeks. I have been down since I got home in September. I keep thinking and hoping that things will get better but there always seems to be something bad to bring me back down again.

[MarkJT]

Ant, understand what you are saying and I would think a lot of people go through this however most come out of it. As yours is lasting a lot longer that what it should, I would well recommend getting a GP appointment and discussing this.

Being treated for an mental health condition (should you be diagnosed) is so much more effective if you get onto it early so that you can recover.

It is a very interesting subject though so would like to hear more about it if you are happy to post about it but first and foremost, get to the GP.

Mark.

[Neil_1]

Hi there Ant,

I’ve experienced this also, oh and welcome to Beyond Blue.

Amazing holidays, or competing in a particular type of event, with a massive lead-up to it, which then for me, makes me just focus so much on it; then once it’s done and over, there is this massive void and low feelings really do enter and are hard to remove.

I suspect that given you had this kind of adventure and you mentioned that you had been training for as well – in that lead-up to it, it occupies the mind so intensely and then yes, once it’s all over, everything else just seems so insignificant and it’s hard to get back into the “old routine”.

I find that to try and come up with new training certainly does help … even trying to come up with a new goal, something new to focus on. This helps me get by.

Would like to hear from you again.

Neil

[geoff]

hello Ant, welcome to the site first of all and thanks for posting your comment.
I can agree with Mark and Neil, because you have built yourself up and trained for so that you would be able to handle this adventure with ease, but as soon as you get home then what is there to look forward to.
You know that this has also happened with many great figures such as the second man on the moon, he had achieved everything he always wanted, but as soon as he was back home, what was there to look forward to, nothing, he had achieved his dream, so he fell into a hole, this does happen on so many occasions, but it's certainly a very painful experience.
I would do as Neil has said that you need to have another goal in mind, set up another adventure somewhere else, different surroundings and somewhere that is so inviting for those who dare challenge the new experience.
Contact the people you know and who have gone with you on your last challenge. Geoff.

[Ant71]

It has been hard since I got back to normal life but other things have been piling up on me as well. I normally just take them in my stride but it seems to be never ending. And a few of these things are financial. My wife and I keep trying to make another goal and the money stops us. So we have no goals and so no reason to train. I am doing some training but I'm finding it hard to motivate myself to get out there