Surviving the Roller Coaster

By Del Moon, NSGA PR Specialist

Dr. Vincent Pearson, 60
Owings Mills, Maryland

Dr. Vincent Pearson has a long list of accomplishments and passions, highlighted by a busy career as a pharmacist and a solid family life. The successful bowler has won amateur events, earned Senior Games medals, bowled on a PBA regional tour and coached. Along the way, he also became a tournament chess player, runner and licensed pilot.

With so many achievements, it may surprise you that Vincent has battled Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), a form of depression, since he was young. In the following edited conversation, he describes his life as a roller coaster each year, with thoughts of emptiness and desiring to be left alone coming in the fall and winter, then receding as spring advances. The cause of SAD is unknown, and treatment was not available when Vincent was growing up in the ’70s.

How did Vincent work through this potentially debilitating disorder? Read on to find out, but his bottom line was the voice in his mind that told him to take a step to do something. As a youth, he buried himself in solitary hobbies like model building to keep the dark thoughts at bay. As an adult, family and faith play a significant role in his support, and his hobbies and sports keep him moving forward.

Vincent happily reports that after a rough patch following the pandemic in 2022, he found the right combination of therapy and medication and feels the best he has in his life. Bowling remains a constant, and he looks forward to more PBA and Senior Games competitions. Vincent now enjoys social interaction and has found the lanes he can roll with to continue to live a fulfilling life.

That voice inside Vincent that said, ‘Do something,’ gave him the spark to persevere through challenges. This attitude signifies a Personal Best journey through life. His positive outlook and forward thinking will surely translate into the best years of his life. Listen to your voice, and keep moving!

We have a lot to unpack with as many things as you have done so far in your life. You just earned a medal at your first National Senior Games in Pittsburgh last year, so let’s start with your bowling history.

I’ll give you the Reader’s Digest version. My first encounter on a bowling alley was at nine years old with my cousin and my brother. I was fascinated by the game and took it up at an intramural level in high school. I didn’t make the cut for the high school team, but still liked it.

I didn’t take it seriously as a competitive sport until after I got married. My wife also bowled, and we did doubles leagues for the first few years. It wasn’t until after our son was born in 1997 that we really got into it. Our daycare provider needed a couple to join her triples league team at the local bowling alley. So we said okay, we’ll give it a try. And it turns out people started saying, ‘Hey, you know what? This couple is pretty good. Especially Vince here.’

Long story short, I have done 25 years of elite league and amateur bowling and joined the PBA in April of 2020. I bowled on the Eastern Regional Tour for about a year and a half. I have won four titles on the amateur circuit, nine state senior Olympic medals and a National Senior Games medal. Oh yes, and two perfect games, although only one is sanctioned. The second one was at a holiday party. But it sold the concept to my wife and son that when you guys come to watch me bowl, good things happen.

However, I took some time away to get my own mental health squared away. Your mental health is just as important as your physical health. You can’t separate the body from the mind. If the mind is a mess the body is going to follow suit.

Are you dealing with mental health issues?
I have dealt with seasonal depression since childhood, and I waited for the spring and summer to come around to pull out of it. It was like a roller coaster. When school started, the depression would start and go deeper until it hit bottom around Christmas time. Then as it went towards springtime, the days get longer, and things just started to click again.

People were always asking me, ‘Vincent – you are doing so well here. What happened over here?’ I would never have a good explanation. How do you describe wanting to disappear from the rest of the world? How do explain you feel like you don’t exist and that you just want to be left alone?

I would be perfectly content sitting in the corner, by myself in the dark with a little light from the door crack. I felt like my spirit had a hole punched in it and my essence was flowing out the hole like water through a drain. I knew it was a bad thing, but I didn’t have the gumption to try to stop it.

Wow, this is an unusual turn. Where do you think this depression came from?
Oh, who knows? People are spending their entire careers trying to answer that very question. Back in the ‘70s children that had psychiatric disorders were not treated as they are now. Many of those children were usually kept at home or put into institutions. Nobody thought to ask, ‘Is this child really undergoing a psychiatric disorder?’ I mean, people didn’t think that way.

My condition is now called Seasonal Affective Disorder, but it was not made a defined diagnosis until about three years ago!

You sound like you’ve found some solutions and are moving forward. Is that how you feel?
That’s exactly right. It’s been a combination of things. I see my therapist about every six to eight weeks, I take light treatments, and I’m on prescription medication.

My depression was turning malignant around 2022 as we were coming out of the pandemic. When I was bowling on tour my nerves would get tied up in knots whenever I would go into a place I had never bowled before. And more often than not, I was there by myself, and my nerves would go completely haywire. I realized I gotta do something about this.

It’s taken quite a while and some experimentation with various things. Now, after going to therapy and being put on medication I’m probably mentally as best as I’ve ever been. I’m hoping to go back on the PBA regional tour this summer.

People with depression often struggle in their careers and relationships. How did you overcome your seasonal experience to go to school, become a pharmacist and pursue all these other hobbies?

I just had to get my mind to tell me to take the first step. I have three answers that will point you in the right direction. The first is for the patient to ask him or herself, ‘Do I want to get well?’ I knew I was in a bad spot, and it was getting worse, so I answered that question yes. You have to make the conscious decision in your mind.

The second thought is to recall the story of Jesus at the pool at Bethesda. He speaks to the man who’s been laying at the poolside for 38 years, waiting for somebody to put him in the water. Jesus said to this man, ‘Do you want to get well?’ and he says yes. Jesus replies, ‘Rise up, pick up your bed and walk.’ If you want to get well, you’re going to have to do something. The remedy is not going to fall out of the sky into your lap, you have to go and get it.

Now my next thought goes to the old saying the devil makes work for idle hands. If that’s the case, he’s not going to find them here. I said to myself, ‘I’m going to keep myself busy doing stuff, even if it’s puttering around the house, doing house chores, doing the laundry, vacuuming the stairs, cooking dinner, filling the bird feeder, stuff like that. If I stay busy, then I have no time to sit around and mope.’

Allow me to offer another point: If Jesus died on the cross for us to have an abundant life then by Jove, I’m going to have some of this life and have some fun. I’m going to be as big as bold and as loud as I know how to be!

That’s how you get out of that shell and realize that, hey, there are people out there who actually want to see you succeed. I said, ‘Okay, this works. I can work with this.’

When did you come to that recognition?
It was actually about 15 -20 years ago when I started my own journey into different therapies. I tried a course of St. John’s Wort, and it was as if a veil had been lifted off of my head. I said, ‘Wow, so this is what the world actually looks like.’

We’re happy you are part of the Senior Games family now. Let’s look back to how you got there. Did you do organized sports in your school years?
Oh, no, I did not. I was strictly lab test tube, notepad and calculator going through school.

Did you want to be a physician?
I knew that I was going to go into the health sciences, but medical school would have been for my father, not for me. He was an Army medic and wanted to go to medical school and he wanted me to become a physician.

I was interested in becoming a pharmacist when I learned that drugs are chemical compounds that can be synthetic and can be from natural sources. They also have an effect on what the body does and how it does it. Once I learned that I was sold right then and there on what I wanted to do.

And you persevered through the work and your seasonal depression to do it. What was next?
I met my wife, Crystall, in pharmacy school. We were in the same class in the fall of 1984. The sad truth is that they found lumps in her breast in my second year and she had to drop out. We continued to date while I was earning my doctorate, got engaged midway through my residency and married after I finished in 1990.

Did you have any hobbies while you were coming up?
I love chess and played at the tournament level since high school. I got into organizing events in the mid to late ‘90s. At one time I was “Mr. Chess” in the state of Maryland. I was president of the State Association and ran a club that met every Tuesday during the school year for tournaments, plus during the summer.

You certainly put everything into what you do. We hear you got a pilot’s license in recent years?
It came about at this time when I was a chess player and organizer. One night, when I came home from directing a tournament, my wife met me at the door with a look on her face that said, ‘We’re having an argument and you’re not winning.’ [Laugh]

Our son, Terry, at the time was only a toddler. Crystall had taken it upon herself to take care of him and not seek help from other people, even though my parents would have gladly come down and spent time with him so that we could have a break. You need to take time for yourself, especially if you’re new parents. Her bottom line was for me to get a new hobby that didn’t take so much of my time. So, I retired from playing and organizing right then and there.

I prayed to the Lord that I had no problem giving up chess in order to help my family, but my identity had been wrapped up in chess since high school. I needed something else.

At that very moment, on comes a commercial on the TV for BeAPilot.com saying your first lesson is $49. Epiphany moment! I’m gonna learn how to fly. Financially, it was a big mistake because it nearly drove the family to bankruptcy. But, but the ability to get up and go pretty much at your leisure is a huge thing to have. You don’t have to go through security line at the big airport, deal with, the airline schedule or pay the fees for the bags.

So now tell me about Dr. Vincent Pearson the runner. How long have you been running?
Seven years. I was big into bodybuilding and hit the weight machines and free weights several days a week. My wife said I was building up a lot of muscles but didn’t have any stamina anymore. Running made sense so I put the Couch to 10K app on my phone in 2017 and have not looked back.

You have done some Senior Games races at the state level, but it’s mostly for exercise and fitness?
That’s correct. I joined a social running group in Baltimore called RunnersRun, and we are entered into a team challenge with all the other running groups in Baltimore City.

Is retirement in your near future?
I’m a pharmacist, I have worked retail, both the chains and independents. I’ve worked hospitals. I’ve taught. I’ve done research. I’ve worked for the state associations. This year will mark 38 years that I’ve been a licensed pharmacist, and quite frankly, I really don’t see myself doing anything else. I joined Ascension St. Agnes hospital back in January and it will probably be my final chapter as a full-time pharmacist.

Then it’s just more time for all this fun stuff.
Yep, that’s right. As long as I can get this house paid for and my son’s student loans taken care of, I think I can safely fly off into the sunset. [Laugh]

Well now, flying off into the sunset includes continuing to let bowling balls fly. You bowl at PBA Tour level where you have a higher level of competition. What benefits does Senior Games offer to you?
I want to play with them for two reasons. Number one, you want to bowl! The mere fact that you are as good as you are means that you spend a lot of time getting to that level. So you want to bowl and the Senior Games gives you an opportunity to bowl.

Number two is the people and the atmosphere. There’s not a lot of smack talking at the Senior Games. Now, talking smack may get a lot of people fired up at the tournament clubs and on the tour. But at Senior Games it is actually somewhat frowned upon. You are here to try to win, but at the same time you’re making friends and enjoying life.

Welcome to the Senior Games family!
Thank you very much! I appreciate the chance!