By Jack Croxall

Having CFS means giving up many things. When your energy is limited, you simply don’t have the capacity to do everything you used to do. That can mean hobbies – something not essential to everyday life – are the first things to get abandoned. But, are hobbies really so unessential? Hobbies help you relax, unwind, and they provide escapism and a bit of fun. As life with CFS can be so gruelling, are these not important qualities? I decided to find out. When I first had this idea I was thirty; in what was perhaps a last-ditch attempt to cling on to my fading youth, I elected to try the hobbies I had when I was half my age – fifteen. Here’s what happened and what I learned.

Getting the Band Back Together

Like many fifteen year olds, I was in a band. I played electric guitar and, along with my brother and two friends, we played rock-y covers of classic oldies. We were called Take Matt. Matt was our singer and so we went for a terrible Take That pun as our band name, so we gigged together throughout most of our teenage years. The grim realities of adult life put an end to our dreams of becoming rock stars.

However, recently, everyone was back in town and we decided to get the band back together. We met at a local rehearsal space which meant that the journey wasn’t too taxing. I made my poor brother load and unload all of my equipment to help save my energy).Even so, I found the practice much more difficult than I was expecting.

After a few songs I was really starting to feel the strain and I ended up having to lean against a wall whilst I strummed through each tune. It was really good fun, so I powered through. Eventually, I found myself lying down on the hard rehearsal space floor feeling pretty dreadful. Everyone was really good about it, but it was clear that being in a band is well beyond me these days. However, learning and practicing the songs beforehand was so enjoyable that I’ve been playing guitar a lot more since. Jamming for short stints in the house is a lot more manageable!

Collecting Pokémon Cards

Pokémon cards were a huge craze at my school when I was about thirteen. But when the craze fizzled out, I kept collecting. I loved them so much that I don’t think I really stopped until I left home for university. Coming back to Pokémon cards, I was astounded at how many there are now. Every Pokémon has at least a handful each and there are over 800 different species (it used to be 151!).

Despite the franchise’s motto, Gotta Catch ‘Em All, I decided to try and complete just one of the earliest sets I never managed to finish when I was younger – the Fossil Expansion, if that means anything to you. It was so much fun! I used eBay to track down each card (as well as friends donating the old ones they had boxed up in lofts), and I slowly started to build the set up from scratch. I even managed to find some rare cards going cheap online and resold them at a profit.

Eventually, I completed the set with what I considered to be my personal Holy Grail as a teenager; shiny Japanese Dragonite. However, once I’d finished the Fossil Expansion, I felt no desire to carry on. I do think that collecting is a great hobby for people with CFS as it’s so low-energy, but it has to be something you’re super-passionate about. For me, I think the appeal of Pokémon cards came down to pure nostalgia.

Skateboarding

Skateboarding was the hobby I was most scared about returning to. Frankly, I was never that good as a teenager and so it seemed like a scary prospect to be hopping back on the board fifteen years later. I dug out my old skateboard from the garage and took it out onto the flat, quiet lane right outside my house. Even just stepping onto it, alarm bells were ringing. I didn’t want to hurt myself, but I did want to tick skateboarding off my list for this article. After a few false starts, I managed to go up and down the lane a couple of times, I even tried a couple of stationary tricks. A few minutes in I quit whilst I was ahead. It seemed pretty obvious to me that skateboarding was a dangerous thing for someone with CFS to do, and falling off (something that happened to me A LOT when I was a teenager) was not an experience I wanted to repeat now.

Fly Fishing

Fly fishing probably isn’t a typical teenage hobby, but it was something that the nature geek in me enjoyed thoroughly. In case you’re not familiar with fly fishing, it involves donning waders and wading into the shallows of a river. Once there, you use a fishing rod to cast a weighted line back and forth over your head, eventually letting it go when it’s long enough to reach the spot you’re aiming f or. At the end of the line, an artificial fly (usually made from bird feather) sits on the surface of the water, acting as bait to entice a trout to come and have a bite.

All that may sound quite energetic for someone with CFS, but, perhaps because the fishing tackle required is designed to be as ultra-light as possible, I was surprised by how manageable I found fly fishing to be upon returning to the sport. In fact, it only took me fifteen minutes to catch a fish! It was draining, of course, but I mitigated that by spending much more time lying on the bank in the sun, watching the wildlife, than I did standing in the water. A solid day of fly fishing is certainly beyond me nowadays, but this relaxed, rest-heavy approach is definitely something I’m willing to try again!

But what about you? What are your experiences of returning to old hobbies with or without illness? Let me know in the comments section or on Twitter!

Jack Croxall is an author/blogger living in Nottinghamshire, UK. He posts for Allies Everywhere monthly.

Twitter: @JackCroxall

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Photos courtesy of Jack Croxall