Brainstorm request: Hobbies for depressed autistic/adhd person

If you live in a major city, you might try looking for local writer's groups. I go to one at a coffee shop near me, same time each week. The person running the cafe gives a prompt and after a couple hours, people can share what they're working on, but usually no one does. It's just a quiet space to practice writing with relaxing music in the background. No socialization expected or required. I'm not a fan of caffeine, so I usually get a hibiscus tea and write a poem based on the prompt. Very low key.

Hi there! I‘m not good at pointing out patterns or solutions instantaneously so I‘ll just provide you with the stuff I do. I don’t have adhd to my knowledge but I do struggle with schedules at times.

So, what I do as hobbies to feel better:

• take a walk along a specific route, either with someone or with music on my ears
• if I‘m able to walk many days in succession, I attempt light running, which sometimes works and can lead to a hobby
• if I‘m in pain often, I rather go swimming in a swimming hall. Repetitive swimming motions make my brain go in trance mode. Thats really cool. The secret is to swim slow enough to not have to stop.
• If I don’t feel like going out at all, I try to do light yoga, I listen to yoga with adrian on youtube.
• when I need to see humans (which I try to avoid actively) I do dnd campaigns irregularly or visit a games workshop.

As you can see, I‘m totally okay alone and try not to be with people as we tend to hurt eachother. If I need to, I select them individually. I don’t do groups, ever.

I hope this helps.

If you live in a city and you're not strapped for cash, mini painting can be a good option. You can walk over to the nearest Warhammer store and they'll set you up with a mini, some paint, and even give you an intro.

If there's no Warhammer store but there's a scale modeling or wargaming shop, they usually have great communities and supplies too.

The reason I recommend this is that a lot of us wargamers or mini painters are weird people. Nerds, introverts, ppl with aspergers or autism, you name it. The store staff is usually used to it and can handle weird. The hobby is infinite. It can go as deep as you want.

If you enjoy walking, I'd suggest seeking out nature. Go for walks in the forest to arrange your thoughts. If that's not your thing, but you like doing something creative, take lessons for playing a musical instrument. You can go to a community center or someone's house, there's limited human interaction and you can keep your mind busy. If that's not your thing either, seek out what kind of activities community centers nearby offer. Stuff like art classes, maybe darts competitions, talking groups... If you own a car I might even suggest going for drives. If you don't, get on a train, get off somewhere and explore.

Have you tried disc golf? You can pick up everything you need for $20. Virtually no interaction if you play by yourself. Other disc golfers are generally super chill. It’s fun to work on your technique and try to improve your score.

have you considered taking a class? it provides social interaction, which I'm gathering you want a little of, stimulation, education, but keeps interactions fairly structured and predictable.

• Gardening: it requires little things but regular attention, and you get food and pretty flowers out of it. If you can't do it at home you can try guerilla gardening somewhere in your neighborhood.
• Astronomy/radio astronomy: nothing more regular and scheduled than the stars.
• Cycling (if you live somewhere where it's safe to cycle)
• Swimming/Trekking
• Do you know the youtube channel Save it for parts? Maybe it can give you some inspiration, he also has ADHD and he's always jumping between different projects.

The needs you are describing are needs I have as well. I meet them by going for walks in the park. I live near a big park though where I can walk for like an hour or more at a time if I want. You might look into hiking trails in your area. I also bring my dog on walks, both because he needs it ofc, but also because if he wants to greet another dog then it forces a social interaction, but one where it's normally 1-on-1 and where there is an obvious topic of conversation. Plus being outdoors is super good for mental health.

Riding a bike. I like trails where I don't have to worry about cars, put an audiobook on and I just ride and ride and ride. I can honestly just go into trance with the rhythm of breathing and pedaling.

How mobile are you, and do you live in a rural, suburban, or city area?

Learn an instrument and join a local community band/orchestra. If you're near a big city you likely have dozens of groups to pick from. I play the Trombone which is nice because I get to sit in the back and observe and the section is small so theres only as much social interaction as I want.

I go to a craft group that meets monthly. That does require picking up a craft... I tend to cross stitch, but we have knitters, crocheters, clothes makers, artists, all sorts of things.

It's the wrong time of year to really seize it, but my ebike is the sole reason I leave the house daily. Most days it's less than a 3 mile round trip for a few energy drinks, but I've done 90+ miles in a day and regularly ride a 19 mile loop over dubbed my "Kessel Run".

If you have money to spend here are some ideas:

• multicopters flight in field of vision or FPV
• RC cars, there may be some RC race tracks around big cities
• if you have some sea or lake nearby, windsurfing might be good idea
• photography

More cheap ones

• find some hackerspace or maker groups, they usually understand that someone needs less social interaction, and you can learn to build stuff
• bird watching
• ingress mobile game (or any other made by niantic)

If you like video games Pokemon Go still works and can be a good motivation to go outside and walk a bit, it's also something you can do alone or with a friend