What is a hobby or an activity that helps you get through your day?

[catmom13]

I have bipolar 2, and as long as I can remember I would easily pick up hobbies that I show the slightest interest in and abandon them after I've reached an intermediate level.

Somehow, baking and cooking stuck. I have older cousins(who were 1 generation older) who allowed me to help in cooking and use a knife as early as 8 behind my parents' back. I taught myself how to bake at age 13. I'm 28 now.

When I feel a build up of heightened anxiety(which is often, and even worse now), I bake. Yesterday morning I tested three entirely different bread recipes and made them all by hand. I feel that the attention I pay to the measurements, shaping, and just the feel of the dough gives me peace. The ensuing exhaustion feels earned. I also document all my baking trials in a spreadsheet so I can track progress and make changes if I don't get the desired results.

I also cook dinner almost every night--depending on complexity it helps tide me over until the next time I can bake.

So, what activity helps you get through your day?

 

[KleinerWolf]

Cooking is therapeutic, especially baking.
Good on you have a spreadsheet, tiny details causing different end-product is quite fascinating.

I'm kinda plain.
Apart from coming on this forum for some mutual support,
I mostly watch youtube videos, either popular youtubers' volog channel/ gaming videos,
Playing music on high volume,
Strategy games that give me sense of control,
and drinking which helps me numb the emotions if I feel overwhelmed.

I'd be keen to replace my gaming and drinking coping,
when the time is right lol

 

[torturedbylife]

Learning a foreign language keeps me busy and I feel better since I like foreign languages. If only my memory was better though.
Something else would be my favorite game that helps me get rid of the worries and escape this shitty reality for a while.
Music helps me as well and it's a big part of my life.

 

[StillWaiting]

That's nice that you can reach intermediate level.

Does watching random youtube videos count an activity?
I get demoralized so easily that picking up any hobby is so hard.

 

[Mr2005]

Doing my Vangelis playlist. That's it. When I'm not doing that I want to die.

 

[Kain10th]

Does sleeping count? And browsing the internet, looking for that one thing that will miraculously make things all better but it's all in vain.

 

[moonchild]

I agree cooking is relaxing under certain circumstances. Every now an then I get into a period of cooking as a coping mechanism I guess. I'll plan what I'm going to make, the more time consuming the better, go and buy the ingredients, then come home, put on a podcast, have a glass of wine and cook whatever I decided on. It's like a small and manageable project that both takes my mind of things for a while, and also makes me feel like I've accomplished something.

Besides that, I daydream so much that it's probably considered maladaptive.
Jumping between different youtube videos.
Just scrolling through various corners of the internet.

Now that I think of it, I guess the occasional cooking is probably the best and most "productive" way I have of dealing with the day. Productive as in it's not a bad kind of avoidance that makes it worse for me in the long run.

 

[woxihuanni]

Baking, cooking, cleaning, provided I have the ingredients and the chance. Cannot clean unless I am alone at home, for instance.

 

[BitterlyAlive]

Animal Crossing kind of helps, but even that feels tedious now.

 

[mediocre]

Drawing on my iPad, watching YouTube, playing the PS4 mostly.

 

[itsamadworld]

Hiking, walking- while listening to music. Feeding animals ( birds, squirreles etc) and making little homes/ nests for birds. Anything in nature, anything to un-school myself from the modern world...even though I got good marks in school...just thinking of all those years having education crammed down my throat at home and being endlessly bullied, brings me bad memories, which music can remove, sometimes...

 

[SpareWheel]

Video gaming, although recently I've not been able to concentrate or get into any.

Cooking, when there's others to do it for anyway.

Watching football, err, moving on.

Working out, I don't look like some bodybuilder, but I do try to keep strong and sleek, I lift for strength not bulk.

Writing, I dabble in short stories. Some have been published, the majority haven't.

Travelling, Hmmm.

Music, I love going to gigs etc, and playing my electric guitar.

So most of things I usually do are off the menu for a while at least. I read a lot, and spend a lot of time in the garden. That's my lockdown day in a nutshell.

 

[MissStarr]

Getting drunk.

 

[BPD Barbie]

Animal Crossing, this forum and a whole lotta Youtube.

 

[Deleted member 1465]

Gardening, scavenging for plants, cleaning the house, playing Guild Wars 2, posting on here.

 

[Bct]

Playing some games and browsing through the net, from looking at shitpostings to commenting here

 

[Janeツ]

I wish I would be a bit interested in cooking or backing, maybe then i would stop eating so many unhealthy things.

Whenever I find a new 'hobby', I would be interested for maybe a day before it's getting boring again. The only thing I do since I am 5 years old, every singel day is daydreaming. I got my own little storys in my head that keep me entertained. I also go for a walk everyday just to continue my storys. The best thing about it is you can do it everywhere at anytime.