Looking for advice on hobbies and whether I should continue rock climbing?
Looking for advice on hobbies and whether I should continue rock climbing?
As the title says, I’m looking for some advice about hobbies.
I struggle with depression off and on and recently it’s been quite tough to be motivated, but I tried indoor rock climbing and I’ve been going twice a week for around a month and I love it. I like the problem solving aspect and it being mixed in with physical activity, as I have a sedentary job as a software developer so it’s good to be more active.
This is where the issue is though, I have terrible hands. I have something called Dupytren’s Contracture, which essentially is extra collagen forms around the tendons and severely limits range of movement in the hands (I’ll post pictures of my hands in the comments).
So my question is would you continue this hobby even though it’s wrecking my hands and look at having another fasciotomy to get them less painful.
Or can you suggest any other physical hobbies that would also be engaging mentally to complete.
Perhaps I should have been wiser before getting hooked on this, but I’m devastated that I might not be able to do it long term.
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Image 1 is left hand and you can see where I had an operation on the ring finger and you can also the pinky bent at 90 degrees. As well as all my ripped skin.
Image 2/3 is right hand and the main issue is finger 2, and the arrows are pointing at a very pronounced tendon and this is the one that is causing a lot of pain and I don’t know if climbing is exasperating the issue.
Yeah, I would stop, or at the very least get a professional opinion. And stay away from hobbies that beat the shit out of your hands.
Long distance cycling might not have a crazy mental workout but it'll wear you out. You could do more challenging hikes, or you might need to replace it with 2 hobbies, I'm just some dude on the Internet.
Take care of your hands.
Thanks for looking out dude.
I think I knew that I should stop, but just needed to hear someone else say it. That said I will have a chat with the doctor and see what they suggest.
Cycling is a good suggestion as running isn’t something I can do too often, but could mix it up. Hiking is something I want to do but I need to travel and camp really for that so not something I can use to keep my mind from going to dark places too much.
If hiking and cycling interest you, have you considered mountain biking? Do you live in an area where trying out mtb might be a possibility?
Is there a place you could row?
It probably is :( I feel like I've burned myself a lot trying to get back to doing things before things are healed