UKC

Just a thread to share your thoughts about how you or others have used climbing or the great outdoors to help with mental health problems. Sorry if it is a bit facebooky but I'll shut up for a week if UKC/H keeps this thread going for a week.

I'll start with this http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/06/great-escape-people-with-lea... my cousin's son, I'm both immensely proud of him and my cousin.

In reply to Eeyore:

Great topic. Here are a few UKC articles covering similar themes:

http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=7264 - Mental Health and Climbing
http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=7107 - Asperger's and Climbing
http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=7814 - Climbing with Parkinson's
http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=6924 - Climbing and Hidden Disability

Article on therapeutic climbing coming soon...

In reply to Eeyore:

My brother once somehow wangled me out of Macclesfield Mental Hospital for a days climbing (to Windgather I think). Despite (me) being medicated to the eyeballs we had a really good day. I was dropped back off at the unit afterwards but it was a turning point. It reminded me of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest when Randal takes his fellow patients for an unscheduled sea fishing trip. Mental illness can affect anybody and the treatment can still be fairly barbaric even today (over reliance on tranquillizers and institutionalisation). It doesn't hurt to feel the wind in your hair and the air beneath your feet.

In reply to broken spectre:

You've got a damn fine brother