Recreation, Leisure and Hobbies in Sobriety

Recreation Leisure Hobbies Top

Healthy Sober Activities! When you were using drugs, there were probably many times when your life focused on obtaining, using, and recovering from the effects of the drugs. There were probably many times when your life was chaotic, out of control, and without structure. Recovery is an opportunity for you to develop a structure to your life and fill it with healthy activities.

It's important to HAVE FUN!    Recreational activities, leisure activities, and hobbies are all ways in which you can have fun, enjoy being with others, and add healthy activities to your life. They can also help you take your mind off drugs, add structure to your life, and maybe even learn something new. They can help you avoid being bored and restless. They can help you reduce stress and anxiety.

What are hobbies, recreational and leisure activities?

How can I evaluate my recreational needs and desires?

Jump straight to the activities list. I want to get started now! Recreation Leisure Hobbies

Definitions

Recreational activities are experiences in which you actively participate in an organized activity, generally with others, to have fun and enjoy life. They include participation in sports, arts and crafts endeavors, and table games, as well as sober dances, bowling, touch football, and card games. Some involve physical exercise.

Leisure activities are things that you do primarily for relaxation and pleasure, and which don't involve much work. These include taking walks, having friendly conversations, reading books, watching movies, or watching sports activities.

Hobbies fit into either category, often involve more committment, produce a product or constitute an avocation.

Top

Questions to help you evaluate your recreational, leisure and hobbie needs.

Before you began using drugs, what type of recreational activities did you enjoy? What type of leisure activities did you enjoy? What were some of the benefits that you obtained from these activities?

Below, there are lists of hobbies, recreational and leisure activities. Which of these do you find interesting? What are some of the benefits that you might obtain from these activities? In what ways could you incorporate these into your recovery program? Do you have any healthy hobbies? Do you see anything  that grabs your attention? Can you think of something else that would be personally satisfying?

Which hobbies, recreational and leisure activities would you like to do within the next couple of weeks? Where would you go? When would you go? With whom would you go?

What obstacles do you think you might encounter? What do you need to do to overcome these obstacles?

What steps do you need to take in order to engage in these activities? Do you need help to organize the activities? When can you take the first step?

Recreation Leisure Hobbies Top

Recreational Activities

Recreation Leisure Hobbies Top

Backpacking                                Trailworks                                     Backwoods Grocery

Baseball/softball                           Baseball Links

Basketball                                    Women's basketball                       Alleyoop

Billiards/playing pool                     Billiards Digest

Bowling                                        Bowling Index

Camping                                       Great Outdoors

Canoeing                                      American Canoe Association           Professional Paddlesports Association

Checkers                                      Online Games!                                 Board Games

Chess                                           Chess Space

Dancing                                        Sapphire Swan

Disc Golf                                      Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA)

Golf                                              LPGA                                              PGA

Ice skating                                    Ice Skating Institute

Outdoors General                          For Women

Playing cards                                 Card Games

Sailing/boating                               The Mother of all Maritime Links

Scuba Diving                                 PADI                                               NAUI                                               Keep Bubblin

Shuffleboard                                  International Shuffleboard Association                   Shuffleboard.net

Skiing                                            Skinet                                               Skicentral                                         Hyperski

Skindiving                                      PADI                                               NAUI                                               Keep Bubblin

Surfboarding                                  Surfboards.com

Swimming                                      US Swim

Table Tennis                                  USA Table Tennis

Touch Football                              Professional Flag Football League                         National Touch Football League

Volleyball                                      Volleyball World Wide

Weightlifting                                   Weightlifting Info                              International Weightlifting Federation

Other: _____________

Recreation Leisure Hobbies Top

Leisure Activities

Recreation Leisure Hobbies Top

Attending auctions                            National Auctioneers Association

Attending auto races                         CART                                                About Auto Racing

Attending concerts                            World Wide Concert Listings!

Attending plays                                  Theater

Attending sports events                      ESPN

Bicycling                                            Articles                                               Recumbent Bicycles (Bents)

Bird watching                                    American Birding Association

Coin collecting                                    Numismatics

Crossword puzzles                            Word Games of All Sorts

Dining out                                          Restaurant Row

Fishing                                               Coastal Conservation Association

Hiking                                               American Hiking Association                   World Wide Hiking Links

Horseback riding                               Trailriding and other links

Museums                                           World Wide Museum Links

Music                                                Women in Music                          Music Therapy               Musicians                     Cool Links

Painting                                              About Painting

Picnics                                               Picnic Time

Reading books                                   BookWire

Roller skating                                     skateboards, rollerskates, inline skates, rollerblades, skateboarding, rollerskating, rollerblading.

Sightseeing -- Sightseeing websites tend to be specific to certain areas. Try using the term sightseeing and the town or province of interest in your web browser, and you will most likely find more than you expect.                                       

Sunbathing -- My serach on sunbathing brought up mostly nudist websites, and no general ones that seemed appropriate for this family friendly website.

Talking to friends

Vidiogames

Walks in parks

Watching movies and TV

Writing                                                  WritersWrite                        Authorlink

Other:_______________

Recreation Leisure Hobbies Top

Hobbies

Recreation Leisure Hobbies Top

Amateur radio                                               American Radio Relay League                      Ham Rad

Aquarium making                                           Aquaruimpharm

Arts and crafts                                               Craft Month

Astronomy                                                     Astronomy Digest

Auto repairing                                                Auto Speak

Carpentry -- See woodworking below.

Ceramics/pottery                                            Zine Zone Ceramics

Coaching Sports                                             The Coaching Staff

Computers -- if you are reading this, you have one, and know how to use one already. Enjoy.

Cooking/baking                                               Food & Beverage for Sobriety

Electronics                                                       Links

Flower arranging                                              Rittners School of Floral Design

Gardening                                                        The Virtual Garden

Genealogy                                                       Ancestry.Com

Home decorating                                             About! Interior Decorating

Hunting                                                            Hunting Information Systems

Model building -- there seem to be many links to specific model building site (plains, trains, autos, boats, toy soldiers, houses, busses, anything you can think of, but no general model building links. Please send me one if you find one. Thanks, Scott Newsom.

Music                                                              Music on the Internet

Photography                                                    Photography Museum

Sewing                                                             Sewing Tip                     Sewing Expo

Singing                                                              African American Art Song Alliance

Stained glass making                                         Stained Glass Artists

Volunteering

Woodworking -- Many links

Other: _____________

Recreation Leisure Hobbies Top

This page lists a great number of activities that may help support recovery. Also included are questions to help you evaluate your recreational needs. Much of this information has been adapted from documents in the public domain, so feel free to copy and distribute at will.  Please submit any additions and links by e-mail to Scott Newsom, Recreation pagemaster.

Disclaimer: The websites listed here do not constitute an endorsement of the site or the organization(s) or products, or activities associated with a given site by unhooked, or anyone associated with unhooked. They are provided only as a source of information and the websurfer is admonished to take all due cautions when engaging in new activities, purchasing products or services. The sites chosen for representation here were picked by a websurfer with little knowledge about most of the specific activities listed. Therefore, persons using this resource with suggestions for additions, and those wishing to have their websites linked to this page should submit their requests to Scott Newsom, Recreation pagemaster.