What do you do for fun?

Just out of curiosity… what does everyone here do for “fun”? Obviously fun is such a relative term now. Maybe a lot of us feel like we don’t experience fun as we used to, but I know we all do other things besides sleep, eat, and hang out on PH. I mean what hobbies/activities have you maintained or even picked up as a result of all of this, or what have you had to give up for that matter (besides the obvious)? I’m talking anything from watching TV to getting out and staying active.

Some people might see this as a stupid thread, but I feel it can be constructive. And I have certainly wondered about how other people fill their leisure time with PFS.

Day-dream about cutting Merck employees into small pieces with a butter knife.

It’s not a stupid thread, we don’t really address how much PFS affects our daily lives very often outwith maybe member stories.

I eat, sleep and hang out on PH. :laughing: No, but I definitely have had to forsake most of what I used to do for fun. Although that said I have been this way for well over three years now and things have improved a lot since years one and two. The first few months off I was crippled by despair and too busy seeing my life unravel to do much. Year two was stlll pretty bad but over the last year to eighteen months I have started to take more of an interest in things which I have always enjoyed.

That said having PFS prevents me doing so much. I can’t exercise save for going long walks because of muscle loss and joint pain, although I was never a gym rat like a lot of guys here. Similarly I can’t do late nights out anymore, it isn’t that long since I got my sleep under control and I still don’t feel that great in the mornings. Combined with being not very happy with my new appearance I don’t do night clubs or concerts anymore whereas before that was a big part of my fun. Similarly, it goes without saying almost, I don’t go on dates. This is again as much due to the physical and mental sides as the sexual ones, were it just ED/libido issues I would probably try and get an asexual gf. Regrettably I have also lost friends over this although I do still socialise with others.

Similarly I have lost a lot of my desire to listen to music, read books, watch films or TV etc although again these have all improved a lot as the black hole of deep despair wore off. But when you still have mental sides like loss of creativity and motivation as well as memory and comprehension issues it seems to be difficult to be excited by anything. I also think, for me anyway, that having this disease makes you feel somewhat disconnected from normal society so I probably have more difficulty relating to films and fiction.

That said I do take a lot more interest in the world now than two or three years ago, travel a bit, watch a lot of sport (reverting to a pre-adolescent state lol). I also still do a lot of the things mentioned above albeit with less enthusiasm and passion than I used to. But at least I can take my mind off PFS a lot more now, as much as you can do when your body is never far from reminding you of it.

Yea this is the one thing I really hope gets better. Right now there is absolutely nothing I ‘enjoy’. My mum asked me how I felt last night and I just said ‘its not that im depressed, I don’t get a kick out of anything anymore’.

Friends have taken me to the cinema a few times and I’ve watched movies which I know I would have loved pre-fin. Similarly I was listening to radio the other day and a song came on that I knew was awesome but I didn’t get that feel good feeling from listening to it.

Right now I’m searching for things that I can enjoy to an extent. I used to be a bit of an adrenaline junkie so I might start doing solo skydives-again I don’t know if I’ll get a kick out of this-but I think it might be my best bet.

I always loved good documentaries and still find them interesting so I’ve been spending a lot of time on YouTube. Similarly when I was a child I was fascinated by magic tricks-strangely I’ve taken a bit of an interest in them again. I think I still have a desire for knowledge.

Other things I’ve tried are doing some counselling on compassionpit.com. I had this idea that I might feel a bit better if I was able to help others. It helped a bit, but again I just don’t get the same feeling of achievement I used to.

Lastly I’ve tried gambling in the past few days, again I don’t get any excitement or feel good feelings from it but helps pass the time. It sort of reminds me of my old self which is annoying because I’m not able to play like I used to. I’ve lost my ability to problem solve. In my past life I was a programmer and played chess to a pretty high level, now both of these are a real challenge to me.

Fin fucks you up, it doesn’t just take your sex life it takes everything! I’ve considering doing drugs, but I really think that’s the worst idea any of us could have-in our state of minds we’d instantly be addicted to the buzz so I don’t recommend that at all no matter how attractive it might seem.

It’s awfully strange how the longer you live like this, you sort of forget the person you used to be. I don’t know how many of you agree, but this is true of me at least. I know I was much different… much funnier and more easily excitable, but two years ago just seems like the distant past. It’s like I’m 80 years old trying to recall my heyday, some 60 years ago. If I didn’t have this full head of hair, I could probably convince myself that I really am 80. It’s when I start thinking like this that I generally get very sad…