Hacker News Reader

Skydivers suffer from depression too. It would be interesting to know if skydivers as a group are more or less depressed than non skydivers or people who skydive less frequently. Are the effects the same for someone with +1000 jumps or is it the change in environment/trying new things that is the key to stave off an episode?

View on HN

It could be that they've adapted to the input. Basically the novelty of the dive has worn off. It'd be interesting to see if they still get the same adrenaline response every time.

I did my ~30th jump with a guy who was approaching 20,000 jumps. He seemed to get just as high off of it as I did.

Over time, the high changes -- from a feeling of "holy shit I'm alive!" to a much more sublime appreciation of the sensation of freedom while in freefall. You're not just dropping like a stone: every surface of your body becomes an aerodynamic control surface, and you feel like you can do anything (except, er, go up). That feeling of freedom never seems to diminish.

A confounding factor may be hobby and the social aspect.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com