If you are a 50 year old who has chronic health problems- what are your hobbies?

[27TimesAway]

I have lost myself in the past 10 years with a major life changing injury, two chronic health conditions that deplete my energy and an older disabled teen who requires a huge amount of input.

I need to find a passion. I like reading. I love animals. I adore travelling (but - funds...) . I'd love some ideas. I just feel like I don't have anything that reall y speaks to me.

TIA

I make cosplay. That takes most of my time and energy.

also Knit, sew, Lego, reading, 3d printing, papermaking,

play the ukulele. Super affordable to get started and easy to learn. Ton of online resources.

basically I love creating and making things and will try any method

i also really want to get into board games. I went and played at a meet up recently and it was really fun. That is a bit harder because it requires making a commitment with other people.

Cooking or growing.

I'll hear of something new and try to make it. Currently it's tornado omelettes for Omurice - they are very tricky to get right! Last month it was banana ketchup because of a Filipino friend of DS mentioning she missed it.

One year it was to grow my own salsa - every ingredient from the garden. Garlic, onions, jalapenos, tomatoes, coriander, tomatillos, etc. it was a lot of fun.

Do you want something new @27TimesAway or would you would like to combine or have a hobby similar to what you already know you like? if that makes sense.

I’m interested in this, but have cognitive problems as well as physical which affect memory and processing speed so a lot is ruled out (and seizures so I can’t cook for example, and scissors/needles can be a problem). I’ve lost so many of my hobbies like sewing and running. I’m currently painting by numbers and feeling
like a bit of a dick (no offence to people who like painting by numbers! I just don’t enjoy it but have to have something new I can do!)

This was interesting - I had to look up omurice it sounds lovely.

please could I ask your advice, if you were to plant something edible at the moment, what would you plant? Ideally in containers.

I looked it up too - my son sent me a photo of his dinner while he was in Korea and I was intrigued!

Now is a little early for planting out (Yorkshire) because there's still a strong chance of frost, but my first recommendations are a packet of cut and come again salad leaves, radishes and rocket.

All are very happy in containers and all are very quick growing. This is important as a new vegetable gardener because it gives you confidence and encouragement!

A hessian sack with four or five potatoes planted in is another good one - roll the sides of the bag down to about 30cm and fill 2/3 with compost. Plant the spuds and water. When the leaves are about 10cm high, unroll the bag a bit taller and top up with more soil. Keep unrolling and topping up until it's pretty full. When the leaves die back, you can tip out the sack and harvest your spuds.

Sewing, knitting, crochet, reading, local history and family history research.

How chronic are we talking? There are levels.

DH has depression which is managed by being ‘retired’ even though he writes and paints and medication and a healthy lifestyle eg exercise and plenty of lights etc

I have a serious autoimmune disease diagnosed about 15 years ago, I also have serious arthritis in my hands and nerve pain. I have gone part time and will have to reduce still further over coming months and weeks.

We have been doing Michael Moseley’s just one thing and trying to future proof our future selves. So we have done the following (some of them you may not think are hobbies but I’m listing what we do all round):

Both of us are huge readers and we are prolific readers, we set up a book club locally and I’m a member of another book club and an on line book club, we also use audible on a regular basis

We are members of a local history club - average age about 70 and we are the youngest but we like it and we enjoy history and learn a lot

We have an allotment and go daily when we can and x3 a week in the winter - great for mental health

Members of an outdoor heated lido and go at least two times a week April to October

We do house projects eg garden / indoor and always have something on the go

We have three dogs and we walk day or shine to get vitamin D

I go to a knitting club once a week

We both do Tai Chi once a week

We listen to the radio (radio 4 or classic)

We have programmes we love eg Death in paradise (and spin offs), high potential but we don’t do live tv and if we sit down it is to watch one or at the most two episodes of something

We do arrow words books and puzzle books daily

We invested in a soup maker, juicer, slow cooker, bread maker and we bake from scratch

I volunteer on a Sunday afternoon at a local huge wildlife place and it helps get me out and about but no writing to do etc

We have 3 NT offspring between us 27, 18 and 12 and they also dip in and out of all of these

We play a huge number of boards games and we have board game friends where we go to their house or vice versa and we play we do this once a week and we have different groups of friends so it’s more like once a fortnight per friendship group eg this week we go to Matt and next week Derek is coming here and then the week after that Matt is coming here and then we go to Derek etc

Every Sunday we do a pub quiz

We do huge amount of gardening it soothes the soul

We plan trips and cruises etc and enjoy planning days out NT memberships etc

Most of these anyone could do a lady comes to Tai Chi in a wheelchair and just does what she can etc

If you're ok using a computer, there's Zooniverse. It's all free.

You sign up, then you can pick from a range of projects to help with. Projects are highly variable. They include things like typing out handwritten notes (eg old museum or library catalogue entries), counting animals in photos, eg how many penguins can you see in this shot of the Antartic - harder than it sounds when everything is shades of black, white and grey! Or identifying potential new planets etc etc. You just do what you can, when you can, there's absolutely no pressure.

Thank you so much! I’ll give it a go - despite managing to kill plenty of house plants! It’s annoying as I think I nurture and do my best. I even killed a peace lily once. Hopefully salad and potatoes will survive my black thumb

I don't really know what I want to be truthful!

I'd love to get into something physical, but am very limited. i have osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromylagia and a couple of auto immune conditions. So exhaustion and pain is a constant for me. I can no longer really work anything like full time and I have had 'fun' in the past by joining a temp agency and working ad hoc in random jobs that they found for me as i like doing new things and not having to commit too much to a workplace. But my health is too unreliable now and so it wasn't fair on the very good agency to put them in a posititon where I might not be able to fulfil a contract.

I love the cinema. I love reading. I belong to a book club but it's not doing it for me. I used to ride and was very active in that world- competed nationally in showjumping- but I had an accident and broke my pelvis, shoulder and fractured some vertebrae so that's out.

I have tried tings like swimming and used to love hiking but the pain is too constant now and I can't manage it.

Thank you everyone for ideas! I shall take a look at all of them.

I love cooking. I used to have a food blog but let that slide.

i crochet and knit and sew.

Wild swimming. Also helps with the pain

gardening - I grow things each summer. Usually tomatoes and cucumber but I’m branching out into carrots this year.

i play recorders. Used to play brass instrument but it got too heavy for me. Sing in a choir. I joined u3a as I’m medically retired and go to a German group.

long term aim is to wild swim in each European country and learn a bit of the language for each visit.

done Greece and Spain so far. Greek is fucking hard.

Oh I can really empathise! What I’ve found hard is the constant relentless loss one by one - of the things I loved, then the loss the liked things, then the things I was able to do. I too really miss the physical things.

do you think you are at the point where you could be helpful for any charities or support groups for any of your conditions? I have the ambition (wrong word but can’t think of correct one) of being a befriender for an epilepsy charity, as I have benefitted from that service myself. I’m not there yet as it’s all just too shit and raw for me.

The physical thing I can excluded from your list is your voice. Could you use that in some way? I would have singing lessons if my speech wasn’t affected. Doesn’t require hands/fingers unlike a musical instrument.

The previous poster, sorry can’t scroll back to namecheck, who suggested recording audiobooks is an amazing suggestion.

If you can’t swim anymore, do you have a hydrotherapy place nearby (realise this is a cost). Just the activity of going to it if you could would be a win, and the water treatments (again, wrong word sorry, I am tired) could be beneficial?

There are some really good suggestions here from other posters.

Thank you so much @Epilepsy I am sorry you also have such issues and absolutely yes- the repeated losses are really hard. I was fobbed off for years by my GP. Pain in joints; 'Lose weight'. Exhaustion 'Lose weight'. Pain and reduced cognitive function 'Lose weight'. (I'm only a stone and a half overweight but never mind). When I finally went private and they turned up each thing with xrays and blood tests and so forth I was so relived to finally have an answer. Then the sadness, anger and grief set in. I am learning how to pace myself as i have a habit of feeling 'better' then trying to cram everything I have missed out in all at once. Then I collapse (10 days in bed for my most recent relapse.)

I'd love to have something that nourishes my heart and soul as right now I feel a bit lost.

If it helps encourage you, I can't keep house plants alive either

I also have chronic health conditions. I read a lot, do puzzles. I have recently joined global penfriends and now wrote to a few people. It's lovely getting letters through the post. There's also postcrossing where you send postcards to people and receive postcards from all over the world.

I borrow ebooks from the library and read them on my tablet, it's free. There are also free courses you can do online, I think with the open university but probably with others too.

I'd like to get into slow stitching, you can buy bits on etsy etc, I have supplies but haven't got round to it yet.

I also enjoy making terrariums. I initially bought a kit online but now just buy what I need and put together what I like. I enjoy growing house plants from cuttings. I pick up cuttings quite cheaply, again on etsy, when they're fully grown I take my own cuttings and once they start to grow I pass them on to friends and family.

I joined a gym. I get it half price. I've had a stroke (cant walk properly and cant move my arm) have Multiple Sclerosis and Epilepsy. I swim, it helps. Plus there are loads of ladies up the to have a cuppa with.

Games, I play competitive online games on my console and co operative ones. But there is free stuff such as words with friends which is scrabble and chess and more sensible stuff that can just be played on a phone or tablet and require no special set up. When really laid up I tend to watch films and then research and read reviews about them after the event.

I also love card and board games.

How about something like photography? I have similar chronic health conditions although they’re currently quite well-controlled by medication so I’m able to work (but not do much else). I’ve just bought a very cheap digital camera and enjoy taking it with me when I go for a walk. On days when you have to be less active, there’s lots of technical stuff to read about. There are also some online courses that the V&A run that I quite want to do.

@27TimesAway if search for this thread -
AIBU to ask for mentally stimulating solo activities at home?
there are several pages of interesting at home hobbies. Might be worth a read?!

I am not quite 50 but have likely incurable cancer. I walk and hike (fell walking). I wild swim. I have a horse and while I don’t ride really at the moment, I do enjoy spending time with him. I garden, both vegetables and cut flowers. I keep chickens. I sometimes go to the gym and lift weights. I would like to do yoga but at the moment, I just physically cannot, but I’m hoping one day. I’d like to do my yoga teacher training purely for my own interests, not because I want to teach yoga.

My approach has been to use it or lose it. I do rest, daily. I nap regularly. But I also really do push myself to do everything I can because once I stop, it gets harder to start again.

A friend of mine, in her 40s with fibromyalgia and ME as well as back issues took up showing guinea pigs with her teen son! They really enjoy it! Your post about competing just reminded me of her 😊

Have you thought about floristry or learning sign language?
Ive started learning spanish.
I have various health issues before said health issues all my hobbies were dance and movement based so im trying to find something jpyful too

I love knitting - it's really trendy at the moment, also stops* me snacking as I need clean hands.

(*Chopsticks can be used for emergency crisp rations).