Psychiatric problems at sea

Disturbed sleep, night watches, living in close proximity to relative strangers, stressful situations and unwanted side effects from seasickness tablets all contribute to an increased risk of mental illness at sea. There have been plenty of reports of people developing psychosis on long oean trips.

Sometimes sea sickness means that long term mood stabilising medication doesn 't get taken or the the medication just got forgotten in the packing list. We know of instances of delerium tremens being precipitated by acute alchohol withdrawl a few days into a "dry voyage". We, ourselves, have had experience of of a crewman member on one of our cruises whose depression was made worse by some of the above factors and became very poorly indeed.

I wonder if other Ocean Cruising Club members have come across psychiatric problems on their voyages and how these resolved themselves? What made things worse and how did the other crew cope with mental illness in their midst?

Simon