Hands free hobbies

hEDSintheclouds

Hello, I am desperately on the hunt for hobbies you can do without your hands. I am massively under stimulated and it is seriously impacting my mental health. I used to love arts and crafts but it causes me too much pain now. Has anyone used any adaptive equipment for art that has worked? Or any hobbies that require minimal hand use.

For reference I am really not into sport and can only do low impact stuff due to my condition anyway.

I watch lots of films, TV and YouTube already but feel like it's only rotting my brain at this point. And when it's the only thing I do it almost feels like a chore always deciding what to watch next. Reading is hard due to ADHD and the need to hold the book- I've tried different  things to hold the book up for me but the page turning takes me out of it.

I want to enjoy life and I know I need to engage my brain to do so. I really appreciate any advice. Thank you!

Hannah_Alumni

Hello @hEDSintheclouds

I'm so sorry you are finding it difficult as your hands are causing you so much pain. 

Can I ask, do you have a speech to text system on your mobile or computing devices? Have you thought about maybe writing through speech to text short stories, poems maybe even a book? or maybe even setting up a blog? 

I research my family history in my spare time and although that can be quite hand heavy (when you fall down the research rabbit hole so to speak!) I wonder if a friend or family member could help do that with you? I always find it really interesting, and if local, it may develop into meeting a local family history group or visiting ancestral sites? 

hEDSintheclouds

I find the speech to text to be really inaccurate and quite frustrating, so it really ruins any creative flow. 

Starlingbird

Hi @hEDSintheclouds, I am sorry to hear that you are struggling with lack of mental stimulation. I can only say what I like to do when I can manage to do things, so apologies if my interests sound boring! Lol.

Maybe cardmaking? I realise you have always done arts and crafts. What I like about cardmaking is that it can be done from simple to complex. You can purchase ready-cut-out pictures, etc, to decorate your cards, so minimal hand use. I buy animal themed pictures, etc, and donate the cards I make to animal sanctuaries to help them raise funds.

I also like to feed the birds. By now you will have worked out that I'm an animal lover 😁 I've got used to which birds come down every morning and afternoon when I put the food out. It gives me a sense of usefulness. I am always excited to see different species. I'm sure I have helped numerous little birds to get through Winter. 

I also watch quite a bit of YouTube (find TV a bit too mind-numbing). I like to watch podcasts involving professors and scientists talking about health matters. There are lots of different podcasts on all manner of subjects and they can be very mentally stimulating.

I'm never bored, despite being quite isolated (I do struggle with a lack of social contact though). 

I hope others can give some suggestions too.

chiarieds

Hi @hEDSintheclouds - & welcome to the community. I'm guessing by your username that you may have the hypermobile type of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome like myself.

Some things you might like to try; firstly I like doing jigsaw puzzles online, & there are many sizes & categories you could try at my favourite site https://www.jigidi.com/  if you create an account you can bookmark puzzles you like &/see how fast you can complete a puzzle compared to other users.

I also like this site as, if you create an account, your correct answers contribute to the World Food Programme. There are many categories to try; I particularly like English vocabulary. As with all the categories they start easy & become harder! Please see: https://freerice.com  The categories are here: https://play.freerice.com/categories

You can also try online sudoku, crossword puzzles, word searches & more here: https://www.mindfood.com/thinkandwin/puzzles/

There are more online games here (I enjoy Mahjongg & Solitaire, but there are many, many more): https://zone.msn.com/en-us/home

How about learning a new language? I'd recommend Duolingo: https://www.duolingo.com/

Or you could learn/play chess online.

anisty

Do you like listening to podcasts?  I really like one at the moment called "The rest is politics" available free of charge wherever you get podcasts. It's Alistair Campbell and Rory Stewart just discussing the week's events really - world wide things in a bit of depth and there is a bit of banter and humour in there.

Very stimulating for the mind!


They also do another one called 'Leading' where they interview people who are leading in their field - not just politicians but sports people, buisness leaders - anyone who has excelled.



If politics isnt your thing, there is another called 'The rest is history'



I dont know who does that one as history is not really my thing but im sure it will be good if you enjoy history,

POGGYFLOSS

And it's amazing in these days advanced technology the speech to text is so inaccurate I'm speaking slowly and clearly it still is starting to translate into Klingon and if you have painful hands or hands that are not dexterous going back and translating letter by letter is also very painful

hEDSintheclouds

POGGYFLOSS said:

And it's amazing in these days advanced technology the speech to text is so inaccurate I'm speaking slowly and clearly it still is starting to translate into Klingon and if you have painful hands or hands that are not dexterous going back and translating letter by letter is also very painful

It’s so exhausting! I used to be a writer but it’s too hard now. 

Steve_in_The_City

@hEDSintheclouds I had very severe arthritis. I couldn't work, got really bored and was in a lot of pain. It was mainly my hands and forearms that were affected, but sometimes my shoulders, spine and other places. My hands were so bad I couldn't even play a round of cards. The medication finally ruptured the lining of my stomach and I was rushed to hospital. When they released me I was frightened to take the medication, so I learnt self-hypnosis. It requires nothing in the way of movement and does engage your brain. There are lots of benefits. I came off the medication and felt more positive and relaxed, far less tense and less pessimistic about the future. You may want to consider it.

hEDSintheclouds

Steve_in_The_City said:

@hEDSintheclouds I had very severe arthritis. I couldn't work, got really bored and was in a lot of pain. It was mainly my hands and forearms that were affected, but sometimes my shoulders, spine and other places. My hands were so bad I couldn't even play a round of cards. The medication finally ruptured the lining of my stomach and I was rushed to hospital. When they released me I was frightened to take the medication, so I learnt self-hypnosis. It requires nothing in the way of movement and does engage your brain. There are lots of benefits. I came off the medication and felt more positive and relaxed, far less tense and less pessimistic about the future. You may want to consider it.

This sounds really interesting. Do you have any resources you’d recommend?

ShirleyW

@hEDSintheclouds
I have severe arthritis in my hands, wrists and shoulders.

I still read my books but on an electronic ereader.  I have a Kobo ereader but many people use a Kindle.  I download all the books I want to read.

I have it propped on a pillowpad cushion which holds it for me.  I still have to touch the screen for the pages to turn but it means I can read easily without having to hold anything.  It also has a backlight which is adjustable and is great for reading in bed.

WelshBlue

I don't know if it's any use but I use one of these to read with (on a kindle) ^^^

It sits on my knees and everything is done with a swipe of the screen.
My wife bought it for me when she got fed up of me dropping my kindle on her head ... 

It has different angles for different positions 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Multi-Angle-Triangular-Cushion-Tablets-Magazines/dp/B08NW79RNW/ref=asc_df_B08NW79RNW/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=463261066018&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=195511208458719326&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045652&hvtargid=pla-1051408896365&psc=1

hEDSintheclouds

WelshBlue said:

I don't know if it's any use but I use one of these to read with (on a kindle) ^^^

It sits on my knees and everything is done with a swipe of the screen.
My wife bought it for me when she got fed up of me dropping my kindle on her head ... 

It has different angles for different positions 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Multi-Angle-Triangular-Cushion-Tablets-Magazines/dp/B08NW79RNW/ref=asc_df_B08NW79RNW/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=463261066018&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=195511208458719326&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045652&hvtargid=pla-1051408896365&psc=1

I actually just bought one of these a couple of days ago. Excited for it to come. 

Steve_in_The_City

@hEDSintheclouds You may want to check this link: https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/self-hypnosis#how-to-try

Towards the bottom of the page you will see a link to guided hypnosis (relaxation) on you tube.

There are plenty of free recordings that will guide you, you can buy cd's but you can just as easily do it yourself. Hope it helps!

ShirleyW

WelshBlue said:

I don't know if it's any use but I use one of these to read with (on a kindle) ^^^

It sits on my knees and everything is done with a swipe of the screen.
My wife bought it for me when she got fed up of me dropping my kindle on her head ... 

It has different angles for different positions 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Multi-Angle-Triangular-Cushion-Tablets-Magazines/dp/B08NW79RNW/ref=asc_df_B08NW79RNW/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=463261066018&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=195511208458719326&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045652&hvtargid=pla-1051408896365&psc=1

Yes that's the same pillowpad I have but mine is grey.  Great minds ...

POGGYFLOSS

That looks amazing and given that I am completely obsessed with the colour blue mine is going to be like blue delivery tomorrow thank you very much!

WelshBlue

Mine's paid for itself many times over ... by not being slapped every time my kindle dropped on my wife's head 

Cantilip

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/learning-center/operate-pc-hands-free-with-speech-recognition

That's controlling your whole computer with your voice, not just speech-to-text. And you can download Kindle onto your PC, so, presumably, haven't tried it, you could just say 'Next page' and the page would turn. Added bonus that PC screens are bigger than mobile ones so you have to do it less often.