Depression is a real thing.
A lot of Truck Drivers have depression, I am one of them. Spending endless hours/days/weeks/months in my truck with only phone calls/video chat & small talk at the truck stops with cashiers and fellow drivers really wears on me. Most days aren't bad.. but sometimes when I'm sitting in my truck at night with nothing but my thoughts it can get pretty bad. I'll start thinking about what happens if I don't get to go home.. what if I lose my life out here and don't get to say goodbye to my family/friends. What if I'm raped and murdered. What if I'm robbed and murdered at gunpoint. These are real things that happen out here to my fellow drivers. There are so many scary things that I easily trail off and think about. It's a very dark and scary place to be.
I don't want to spend the rest of my life trapped in a box on wheels.
I knew I shouldn't of left with a run to Upstate NY. But my mother told me to go, that everything would be okay. I got to NY and got the phone call from my mother that my grandma had passed away... I was almost 800 miles away and drove straight home, but she was already gone. I never got to say goodbye. 😭
Family emergencies are incredibly hard because we (truckers) can't just drop everything and make it home like if we were home everyday. Hundreds to thousands of miles separate us from our families.
I know a lot of people think truck drivers are nasty, on drugs or total assholes. But a lot of us are good people, we are just providing for our families.