I'm a Therapist and Here's Why I Recommend "Fun" to My Patients

Yes, you read that correctly.

Over my years of training and professional work, I noticed an off-putting trend while conducting intakes with my patients. What I noticed was that many of these individuals had little, if anything, to say when it came to exploring hobbies and recreation. In fact, many were shocked, or even confused, that I’d inquire about this in an intake. Much of the recreation that my patients had described in their past was contained to their lives in secondary school and college. Once getting started on their career paths, many of my patients only held onto activities that could serve a dual purpose, such as exercise which is both beneficial to our physical health and (for some more than others) can be entertaining. I began to wonder to myself clinically, where did everyone’s hobbies go? And did it matter that they disappeared?

To pursue the first question was relatively straightforward. As I explored this curiosity in my work, a few storylines appeared relatively commonplace. One of the major themes was merely time. For many it was a question of, what do I have time for in a given week? I’ve got work (and commuting to and from work), hanging out with my friends, going to the gym, laundry, dishes, cooking, childcare (if I got ‘em), pet care (if I got ‘em), and sleep! After checking a lot of these boxes, my patients didn’t have the time or bandwidth to regularly play guitar or paint a picture. Second, a number of my patients would reflect that there was no point to doing hobbies if they did not serve a more direct function such as propelling one’s career or improving physical health. I could understand in some circumstances this pushback to recreation, after all if you’re a single parent working multiple jobs we might barely have the time to take a shower, much less take a painting class. For many others though, I found myself thinking, oddly enough, about the pandemic lockdown.

I would not want to leave unacknowledged the tragedy of the pandemic – the loss of life, emotional distress, substance abuse, unemployment, and more. It was a period of time of intense difficulty and trauma for many. In the midst of that struggle of dealing with the isolation of lockdown, many of us ended up developing coping strategies through finding different ways to use our time. After all, in an instant, poof! Commutes vanished. Our daily errands could be squeezed into the gaps of the workday. Our social lives shrank. Our jobs that were so intricately tied to our self-worth were reduced in scale, sometimes disappearing completely. If we weren’t a first-responder, what was leftover after this change? Free time. This created a rare silver lining of lockdown of being able to explore and pursue hobbies, recreation, and imaginative free time activity.

To fill this space, people sought out all sorts of activities that had been brewing in the background and never realized - pottery, paint-by-numbers, tie-dye, Animal Crossing, at home Olympics, Dungeons & Dragons, Catan, learning a new instrument! As painful as the isolation of lockdown was, many people discovered more about who they were beyond their office spaces. Beyond their responsibilities. Beyond what the world wanted from them.

Lockdown, however, ended. Life as normal resumed alongside millions of obligations, and not enough time to get on top of them all while juggling zoom meetings and in-office days. But what if the silver linings of lockdown didn’t have to be left behind as we re-entered the world? To continue the pursuit of our beloved hobbies would require us to set aside more intentional time than before. One might wonder, however, why would we make the time at all? There are more important things to be done. The resistance of time I believe is one we can all relate to on some level, and one part of this resistance really stood out to me. Do hobbies and recreation have worth? Now I’ll admit, I’m biased here. I’m an avid reader and gamer - both tabletop and video games. I love having hobbies and love encouraging others towards pursuing them. However, what does the research say? 

·         Fenton et al. (2017) conducted a review of 35 papers that observed the impact of physical, creative, and social recreational activities on people struggling with mental health issues. They discovered that these types of activities benefitted each individual by leading to a greater sense of social belonging and connectedness, increased self-esteem and confidence, reduced stress, greater life satisfaction, improved sleep and energy, as well as a better mood! Not a bad payout for spending some time having a little fun.

·         Iwasaki et al. (2013) surveyed a culturally diverse group of individuals diagnosed with a variety of mental health disorders and discovered that developing a sense of meaning through leisure activities was positively correlated with recovering from mental illness, developing coping strategies, and reducing boredom.

·         Zulyniak et al. (2020), distributing self-report surveys, looked to differentiate between differences in impact between recreational and non-recreational physical activity. They collected data regarding engagement with recreational and non-recreational physical activity in tandem with self-reported depression symptoms and history mood and anxiety disorders. They found no correlation between non recreational physical activity and mental health symptoms and diagnoses. Instead, they found correlation to reduced depressive symptoms and self-reported mental health issues in individuals who engaged in recreational physical activity.

This research quite literally debunks our perception that hobbies are frivolous. Overall, research has started to discover that recreation, leisure, and hobbies play a significant role in social connection, self-image, and mental health; which in turn can be helpful to building a generally healthier, longer and happier life.

Work, romance, family, physical health, hobbies, and more are core priorities that can all serve to create a more reliable and steady structure for our psyches. If we spend all of our energy supporting our work lives and a recession hits, we lose our jobs, or we make critical work mistakes, then all of a sudden, we could find ourselves facing a collapse, identity crisis, or even a nervous breakdown. If we balance our efforts with spending time with friends and family, exercise, and building competency in hobbies, we are not only less likely to crumble in the face of adversity, but we are also able to self-regulate our stress levels, draw healthy boundaries, prioritize our overall health and thus be able to meaningfully show up to life’s important moments.

Hobbies have capacity to offer us fulfillment, meaning, and community. Unlike the usual activities of our day-to-day, however, hobbies can be more easily forgotten or deprioritized. Yet there is so much potential benefit to us if we make the time for them! When we build a stable sense of hobby and recreation, we build another strong pillar to hold up our mental health. Give yourself permission to rediscover the things you used to love, to dive deeper into games, or to pick something up that’s new. Do it solo, do it with a friend – As Nike preaches, “just do it!”

References

Fenton, L., White, C., Gallant, K. A., Gilbert, R., Hutchinson, S., Hamilton-Hinch, B., & Lauckner, H. (2017). The benefits of recreation for the recovery and social inclusion of individuals with mental illness: An integrative review. Leisure Sciences, 39(1), 1-19.

Iwasaki, Y., Coyle, C., Shank, J., Messina, E., & Porter, H. (2013). Leisure-generated meanings and active living for persons with mental illness. Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, 57(1), 46-56.

Zulyniak, S., Williams, J. VA., Bulloch, A. GM., Lukmanji, A., & Patten, S. B. (2020). Physical activity and mental health: A cross-sectional study of Canadian youth. Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 29(4), 241-252.