It is a very normal experience for people living with pain to find that enjoyable, ‘fun’ activities can fade from their lives. Finding ways to bring back lost activities can be important from a quality of life perspective, and can have a big impact on mood and wellbeing.
Often a first step can be putting ‘fun’ – whether that is leisure or social activities, hobbies or interests – back on your list of priorities. Another important step can be finding a different way to approach an interest or activity, so that pain is not a barrier to doing it.
Football used to be my life. With the pain, that all ended, & I was so gutted that for a while I couldn’t even face watching it on TV.
I’ve got my head around the fact that I can’t play any more now. When I realised how much I missed it I went back to watching matches, to start with on the telly & then getting to know the local club again & going to their matches. Then I got asked to help coach the youth team. Football is my life again- in a different way, sure, but not a worse way!
Have a look at our pages on HAVING A SOCIAL LIFE for ideas about how to keep hold of enjoyable activities and hobbies, and the following factsheet on pain, values and expectations, and presentation on pacing (click on the images below).
