Joseph Barney

Photography as Therapy

I am a brain injury, repeat brain injury, survivor with PTSD and anxiety/bipolar issues. Luckily they have meds but they don't help as much as needed, but I've found that I'd forget my woes a bit, so to speak, when I was out doing photography, especially in nature. For a while it was a guilty pleasure until on a hunch I Googled if it helped with PTSD and it does. In fact, war veterans use landscape photography as therapy for their PTSD. I wasn't in the military but I've had the crap kicked out of me lots. I simply grew up in that kind of neighborhood/town but now I live in Utah which I'll say is a lot safer. I can walk around Historic 25th Street at night with my Samsung S10 and Sony A6000 with a couple of lenses, including my $1K 210mm lens and I'm fine. Yeah, there's a bit of crime in that area per news but the news is always negative. Ogden has a big of a reputation but honestly it's not that bad. The people are worth getting to know.