Photography helps with mental health problems

This would probably help even more...
www.cnn.com/2020/11/07/health/depression-magic-mushrooms-psilocybin-wellness/index.html

You’re kidding… right?

Lithuania-born vet, 33, left paralysed after horror road smash died after taking magic mushrooms in bid to relieve her pain, inquest hears.

26 September 2023
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12563009/Vet-left-paralysed-requiring-24-hour-care-road-smash-died-taking-magic-mushrooms-bid-relieve-pain-inquest-hears.html

No, he isn't. I've also read about research on psilocybin. But that's micro doses under controlled forms, not high doses while driving a car.

Precisely!

Meanwhile, around the world, hundreds of people die each day as a result of drunk drivers causing vehicle accidents. Many families suffer, spouses are killed, children killed, as a result of domestic violence, fueled by alcohol...

Never let sensationalist, popularist media warp your perspective.

For what it's worth in the sake of discussion of the affects of photography on mental health.

I entered three photo contests recently. I had hopes for one of them. That feeling of being in the bottom tenth stings, and waters that seed of doubt in ways that never feel comfortable. But what's weird is, that I apparently placed top 1% in the other one...and it registered almost no reaction to me, but then again, what's third place when 40 other people also have it?

On the flip of it all, that hour I spent meandering with the doggo fighting her and trying to find something worth shooting in a one horse town...kinda forgot about the weight of the problems on my shoulders for a bit.

Remind yourself to take contests with a grain of salt. Judges (I've been one, and hung out with others during judging, but have also been judged, so I'm not making this up) see contest entries through the lens of their own biases. Even when trying to apply whatever principles the judging organization or contest organizers have put in place, no one can fully separate their own likes/dislikes from their evaluations and some don't even try.

Ask for sincere reviews from a variety of people (which I know you do), and take those into account as you evaluate how close you are coming to your own goals, which is what really matters.

And yeah, I relate to the search for meaningful subjects. Some of us live in very un-photogenic places. I'm one of them.

Precisely. I often think judges are on drugs when deciding....
maybe replace them with AI. Especially the ones in the law courts!