Do you ever find your time at sea to be challenging? Like any occupation, seafaring can involve, besides physical, mental, and emotional stress. It is not, therefore, a surprise that a majority of mariners struggle with mental health illnesses and disorders.

What about the situation among seafarers all over the world, how has emotional instability affected duty? The mind plays among the body’s most critical roles, mental health and emotional challenges often hinder a person’s ability to perform or function normally. This could mean months to years of being unable to deliver optimally.

What then causes seafarers emotional distress?

The sea is beautiful, and the duty to serve in it is one unrivalled. You could consider it a calling, since the decision to be a seafarer involves, among other things, accepting challenges, isolation and taking on hard work. There is plenty involved in a mariner’s day-to-day that is enough to accumulate to mental pressure and stress.

In most, if not all parts of the world, emotional matters/concerns, which would turn psychological, were for long considered to be an individual’s own hurdles, and among the things you’d be expected to either keep to yourself, or handle on your own. While help came along the way, the fear around seeking it and how one would be perceived held back, and still does, a large number of people for long.

1.Isolation

The isolation out at sea is one of the contributing factors to a seafarer’s struggles with emotional instability. Service at sea involves detachment from the world, and even while at service, sticking to duty, with as less social interactions as possible, sometimes none. This, coupled with other challenges, continually affect a seafarer’s emotional health.

2.Incommunicado

One of the things you should expect is limited or zero communication with the rest of the world for months. We love our families, and friends; they make life whole. To serve, however, you need to put them aside for months. We are just human at the end of the day, and the inability to see or talk to your loved ones for even up to a year can feel quite depressing.

3.Dangers

That’s not all, any times, accidents or other dangerous issues could arise while at sea. The whelming feelings of reaching out to family members could overcome a seafarer in the course of their time.

4.Tough duty

A mariner’s duty has been regarded as one of the most significant, in one of the most dangerous environments. The sea has life that looks up to your dedication as a mariner, but that doesn’t mean everything else becomes easy. With expected challenges facing you on a daily basis, besides the mandatory duty while at sea and the little control over situations you can have, it’s understandable that good mental health at sea can be but a distant concept.

5.Fatigue

The job of a seafarer is a demanding one. You will often get exhausted, and perhaps get less sleep than you should. Being one of the most physically strenuous duties, with no actual relief to the fatigue, most seafarers tend to develop mental health disorders.

Unlike most occupations, seafaring is one that you set out on, aware that every day for the next week, then month, and eventually months to even a year, you’ll be on duty. It takes a lot to be able to handle all the pressure and remain as strong and capable.

Life at sea

We have discussed being away from your family for months, which could span to a year or more. A mariner’s lifestyle, nevertheless, is something to get used to. For those who may not have wives and families, moving around may feel exciting and part of the adventure at first. But it eventually gets exhausting, then lonely, especially since you will most likely be cut off from your social life.

Living with a team of individuals with different habits and characters has also never been an easy thing. For a seafarer, your stay at sea would mean additionally having to adjust to stringent rules and regulations on board. Some people take long to get used to this system, and others do not. If you mean to stick with the sea to the end, then you may at some point find this to be depressing.

Human interactions do not also guarantee good relationships. You may often find yourselves in conflicts, or tangled in the wrong webs of on board politics. How do you get out of such matters? For someone struggling to remain sane, it could feel like a lot. It does pay to take a breath, reassess your position and duty, and seek peace within to get through some of the toughest days at sea.

You will come to realize that despite the adventure and experience around seafaring, there will always be challenges. But what in life doesn’t involve trials? Every new day, we try to pursue our ambitions, and it is not all times that they come easy. Some people like the challenge, and others do not work well with pressure. Whatever the case, do not despair; there is plenty in your hands as a seafarer—it is the strength within that matters and what both your duty and loved ones will look up to.

Final words

Mental health is a menace to everyone, off-and-ashore alike. You may feel that you are alone, nobody understands and that you may not be able to get through your stay, that you are unstable and weak. But remember that if you’ve been able to withstand all the emotional pressure, you indeed are strong and perhaps didn’t know it.

Moreover, you can indulge in healthy habits and rituals, which without medication, can help lessen the pressure. You may come to find meditation and reading to be one of the best and yet free ways to clear the mind, writing helps with expression, and socializing helps take some heat away. There is never an exhaustible list to natural solutions to mental and emotional stress.

Life at sea can be challenging in all ways but a seafarer is bigger than his emotions. A healthy mind is a healthy life, and the same will reflect on your relationships. I hope that you see better days.