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.
just want to add it is possible to climb without loading your hands so much. an option is to learn more about foot placement, leg power and flexibility etc. and only use hands for balance not load.
it’s true you probably can’t raise your grade at the same rate and likely to the same level as those who use their hands more and more. but it certainly is possible - and in some ways just as challenging.
one question is however, are you capable of protecting your hands while doing this? if your natural instinct is going to be to load your hands and “worry about it later”, and you’re just not going to be able to unlearn that behaviour, especially since slipping can load your hands in unexpected ways…then i agree it sounds rather risky