{"id":96970,"date":"2026-09-07T14:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T14:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=96970"},"modified":"2026-09-07T14:05:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T14:05:00","slug":"what-in-the-world-how-does-nine-months-at-sea-impact-your-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=96970","title":{"rendered":"What in the World &#8211; How does nine months at sea impact your mental health?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"sw-text-body-copy sw-pt-4 sw-text-secondary\">Available for over a year<\/p>\n<p class=\"sw-text-body-copy sw-whitespace-pre-line sw-pt-4 sw-text-secondary\">After a record 250 consecutive days at sea, the USS Abraham Lincoln finally docked in Thailand last week. Half of the 5,000 crew members are under 24 years old and they\u2019ve been on board since December, as part of the US-Israel war with Iran.<\/p>\n<p>There have been reports of difficult conditions on board, with food shortages, broken plumbing and concerns about the crew\u2019s morale and mental health, but the US Navy says there haven&#8217;t been severe problems on board. So how can spending months at sea impact your mental health?<\/p>\n<p>We speak to Dr Harold Kudler, a psychiatrist and former head of mental health policy for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, about the toll this can take. We also hear from Joe Franta, a merchant mariner and YouTuber who documents his experiences working on cargo ships. He shares what it\u2019s like to be at sea for long periods of time.<\/p>\n<p>Email: whatintheworld@bbc.co.uk<br \/>\nWhatsApp: +44 330 12 33 22 6<br \/>\nPresenter: Hannah Gelbart<br \/>\nProducers: William Lee Adams and Chelsea Coates<br \/>\nEditor: Harriet Oliver<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"sw-text-primary sw-font-bold sw-transition sw-ease sw-transition-colors sw-duration-350 motion-reduce:sw-transition-none group-active:sw-text-accent group-active:sw-underline group-focus-visible:sw-text-accent group-focus-visible:sw-underline group-hover:sw-text-accent group-hover:sw-underline sw-text-brevier\">Programme Website<\/span><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"16px\" height=\"16px\" viewbox=\"0 0 32 32\" class=\"sw-ease sw-transition motion-reduce:sw-transition-none sw-duration-350 sw-transition sw-ease sw-duration-350 motion-reduce:sw-transition-none sw-ml-2 sw-ml-1 sw-inline-block sw-fill-accent\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M21.9,16.9v11.5H3.7V10.2h11.1V7.6H1V31h23.6V16.9H21.9z M18,1v2.6h10.2l-0.5-1.1L11,19l1.9,1.9L29.6,4.3l-1.2-0.5V14H31V1 H18z\"\/><\/svg><button class=\"sw-group sw-text-pica sw-block sw-w-fit sw-pt-4\"><span class=\"sw-text-primary sw-font-bold sw-transition sw-ease sw-transition-colors sw-duration-350 motion-reduce:sw-transition-none group-active:sw-text-accent group-active:sw-underline group-focus-visible:sw-text-accent group-focus-visible:sw-underline group-hover:sw-text-accent group-hover:sw-underline sw-mr-0.5\">Show less<\/span><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"0.75rem\" height=\"0.75rem\" viewbox=\"0 0 32 32\" class=\"sw-ease sw-transition motion-reduce:sw-transition-none sw-duration-350 sw-ml-1 sw-mt-1 sw-inline-block sw-fill-accent\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M0 18L16 0l16 18z\"\/><\/svg><\/button><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sounds\/play\/w3ct98xy?at_medium=RSS&#038;at_campaign=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Available for over a year After a record 250 consecutive days at sea, the USS Abraham&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":85947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[231,1472,2469,402,1291,1201],"class_list":["post-96970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-health","tag-impact","tag-mental","tag-months","tag-sea","tag-world"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.0 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What in the World - How does nine months at sea impact your mental health? - Gulf Times | News by the minute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sounds\/play\/w3ct98xy?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What in the World - How does nine months at sea impact your mental health?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gulf News| UAE&#039;s Largest News aggregator site\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sounds\/play\/w3ct98xy?at_medium=RSS&amp;at_campaign=rss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gulf Times | News by the minute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-09-07T14:05:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/p0g0gjs2.avif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What in the World - How does nine months at sea impact your mental health? 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