Reply To: MonkeyBrains: JCCC4 Mental Health meetup/discussion followup
I’m going to be a new SeaMonkey this year although I know a few other returning ones.
One of the reasons I held off going before was because I have some serious mental health challenges and I was concerned about making a cruise work for me with them. After copious internet searching for where to get help at our ports of call in case I go into crisis on board (and feeling ok, if not mostly satisfied with what I’ve found… some of these places need better mental health support), after searching for a travel insurance company/plan that covers mental health emergencies (of course, now I can’t remember which one I found), and after having the idea of getting early pre-boarding so I can get over my anxiety re: being on the ship before I have to deal with meeting people, I had the idea of having daily or semi-daily peer support meetings on-board via the Shadow Cruise to keep each other sane, give each other support (because we’ll be cut off from our usual support networks if we didn’t bring them with us,), talk about our feelings/problems, etc. (I’m concerned about agoraphobia, amongst my usual issues, for myself… I get twitchy in the Midwest because it’s so flat and I feel like there’s no where I can run and hide. I’m kinda nervous about being out at sea when there’s nothing but empty water around and I’m literally trapped on a ship.)
I’m glad to see I’m not the only person who wanted to do something with mental health. I don’t want to take over anyone else’s thing (esp. if it’s established) but this is something I feel I want to do, even if it’s just me sitting in a room talking with one other person. Would someone else rather do this? Should I try to organize this? Should I wait to be on board?