Mental health benefits of climbing

I can't imagine writing an article about the benefits of something without also considering thoughts from the flip side. Otherwise you have a bunch of meaningless fluff. So I'm guessing the OP is interested in Vipers thoughts.

Regarding my own experience, and without elaborating, climbing is a huge funk buster for me.

Old lady H wrote: Uh, winter? Can't climb. Stuck inside. Outside iced over everywhere. Not mental enough to try ice climbing. No car to get there anyway. Stuck inside. With, you know, those people you only see when you have to. Overspending. Overdrinking. Under drinking. THOSE people get to go warm places. And climb. And aren't stuck inside. SOME get almost free rides to, oh, just an example, HAWAII. Just...sayin. Stuck inside. Stuck on/in non moving, stupid transport of your choice. To go see those people you only see when you have to. With children, babies, spouses, bf, gf, all of whom are crankier than you. And they voted incorrectly. And will tell you why. For the next 20 hours. Did i mention stuck inside? And can't get out? Is there a button on the old person fob for that? Best, to all, OLH. Not cranky. Ever. Nope. :-)

Yup. Craaaaaaaabby. :-)

Best to all, Helen

But hey, in a week or two the days will be visibly less dark.

@ Eric engburg, In spite of my being the one who started the thread, how do you know you are hopelessly hooked on climbing, and the bit acknowledging Viper's good point, please do not construe that to mean that I, and others, ruin our lives for climbing. That may be true for some, but it is complete horse hockey to assume that for myself and most everyone I know.

Jim Turner wrote:I can't imagine writing an article about the benefits of something without also considering thoughts from the flip side. Otherwise you have a bunch of meaningless fluff. So I'm guessing the OP is interested in Vipers thoughts. Regarding my own experience, and without elaborating, climbing is a huge funk buster for me.

You got it!

Jake, thanks for giving my original post the benefit of the doubt. I really appreciate the legal defense. Haha.

Some people filled in the gaps and drew conclusions based on what was omitted in the original post. What was not said was not said. I didn’t intend to antagonize those who have had negative experiences as a result of climbing, nor do I intend to write a one sided article minimizing negatives effects. While I did solicit positive experiences, it does not mean I’m interested in propaganda. Also, soliciting individual stories is not worthless, it is qualitative research that can lead to theories that future quantitative research can investigate. Unfortunately, there is little research on extreme sports and it has a lot of value, IMO.

Myself and Viper are actually on the same page. And I do address both the addictive nature of the sport, increased risk-taking, and what can happen to one's mental health when they can't climb for whatever reasons.

Also, thanks to everyone who PMed me their stories. I will try to respond to everyone individually when I can get to it.

Jasper Coombe wrote: Hi, I’m a climber myself, I’m familiar with this situation, I will be glad to help you further. I heard from friends, students about books that I need to read, and I did not regret it, but it helped me a little. But then I read the wonderful essays “Brave New World” - https://tooly.io/brave-new-world/, I recommend that you familiarize yourself with them. Exciting essays about the world, technologies, processes, I think it will be especially interesting for students, because here are the historical, social and psychological aspects of the chronology of the world, I am sure that this will help many people for essays or dissertations. Tooly.io also has useful tools to help you write essays, study materials, and simply interesting materials on hundreds of other topics. Come on, I recommend it!

You do realize this thread is four years dead?

I think about this alot.   Its inevitable that on this website you will get snarky faux humble type responses about how climbing is meaningless and selfish etc… but honestly I think approached in the right way climbing offers innumerable health benefits.  As a longtime ER nurse I am continually astounded by the effects of poor mental health.  For example there is a story I heard of one massively obese person who had to have his mattress surgically removed from his back.  Anything that makes you happy to get up in the morning, move your body and challenge you mentally and physically is going to be good for your mental health.  I would say its actually incredibly important for people to find things that give them joy whether it is climbing, having a family, helping others, it will be different for everybody. There is no reason climbing cant be one of those things and offer innumerable mental health benefits. 

edit: just realized this thread is way old, still interesting