Woodcarving for mental health

[grampabatball]

Hi All, As I have reached that stage in my life wherein one becomes concerned about holding on to mental faculties I am trying to make certain that my activities assist me in this area. My question is: Does woodcarving help people stay mentally alert? Do you know of any woodcarvers that have fallen victim to dementia, Alzheimers Etc. There is a growing body of research that indicates that stimulating mental activity helps keeps us sharp. I'm hoping that my woodcarving helps us do that. Anyone have insights into this? As always I look forward to hearing from any and all. Thanks

[billwdcrvr1]

Re: Woodcarving for mental health

yes, woodcarving does help for mental illness..I have suffered thru depression on and off for the past 15yrs..one thing I can still do..is pick up a knife and whittle a peice of wood..when all the worlds troubles seem to rest on your shoulders..try doing some carving...take up a small corner in your basement away from the other traffic of the household...and keep chipping away..my advise is keep a woodcarving/wood working project in your mind all the time..that way it you wont clutter up your mind with other worries..and actually make an attemp to do that project..I have suffered with right frontal lobe dementia for 13yrs at the time of diagnosis. 15 different meds didnt work..so I have been med free for the past 8yrs 2 verses from the bible seemed to lift alot of baggage off my shoulders..john 3:16 and psalm 23 ..my concentration was away down..but those verses seem to lift me up and let me read them till I understood them. Never been better since...Amen

[Kenny_S]

Re: Woodcarving for mental health

Rumors have it that there are a few on this board. Heard tell HiHO and Lynn lives close by Vnita Ok where there was a mental Hospital. Me thinks he escaped and they had to close down the hospital a few years back. Then, my little bride says I am a mental case. couldn't be the 39 years with her, could it. Anyway, Now that is jsy rumors on HiHo and Lynn.

Seriously, anything to keep the mind going and occupied. Reading,crossword puzzles, carving, so as long as you use your mind. Npw that doesn't mean watching TV for get up time till go the bed time. Hmmmm, an hour after i get up I want to go back to bed. Ahhh, the early stages of dimentia. Oh No Mr Bill!

[LCorbett]

Re: Woodcarving for mental health

WOW...interesting topic Grampabatball!...

Here's another angle on the mental health issue...I have an Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder. I spent some years in talk therapy and am currently on a relatively low dose of Luvox. OK...here's the thing about the art...many folks know I carve birds...really, really minutely detailed birds. Been doing this since around 1986, but before that I did really, really minutely detailed pen-and-ink drawings (grin).

My psychiatrist told me nobody knows where creativity originates when it comes to "mental health"...meaning that you don't necessarily have to be "tortured" to be an artist, but many artists are. So...bottom line is, my chosen artform is a direct manifestatation of my obsessive/compulsive disorder...so it's both my curse and my gift. The medication dosage was carefully monitored so as not to interfere with wherever my art was coming from, while still allowing me to function fairly "normally" (anybody who knows me already knows I'm not "normal" anyway...grin).

Making art has been both my sanity saver and nearly made me go the other way...would I trade "perfect mental health" for my art? Not on your life! I believe that it does keep my mind alert because there's a problem to be solved every single day. I have learned to recognize the triggers as to whether today will be a "sanity" day or a "torture" day and deal with it accordingly.
I also firmly believe that an active mind will help forestall some forms of dementia...when I'm not making art, I've got my nose in a book (voracious reader of nearly everything...fiction & non-fiction), plus an advanced crossword nearly every day. I also write...most of it never sees the light of day, but the practice of stringing words together in new ways is the challenge (OK, some of the stringing of words is verbal and not too pretty if I happen to hurt myself with a carving rasp...completely new animal species have been invented as well as the physically impossible things I tell them to do...lol).

Now, I'll be the first one to make fun of my OCD (and the rest of you can make fun of me too...really!), but I would never make fun of anybody else's...my disease makes me do some hilarious things sometimes...I'm very candid about it because it's nothing to be ashamed of...it's just part of who and what I am...it'll never go away, so I may as well try to see the humor in it...

[Lynn O. Doughty]

Re: Woodcarving for mental health

Mental health? What's that? I talk to my horse. Does that make me nuts? Sometimes he even answers back. I talk to my wife and she says I'm nuts. She always answers back! Seriously though, I don't think objects with points and sharp edges would be a proper activity for someone with unstable grey cells.

[Ron Davidson]

Re: Woodcarving for mental health

I know for myself I can carve and think about solutions to problems etc. You also have to have a clear mind to carve. You can't go out carve with a chip on your shoulder or in other words you don't want to carve mad. Now what were we talking about?

[Kenny_S]

Re: Woodcarving for mental health

Dang it Lynn, Ya take all the fun out of scareing people with a pointed object.

.

[Nancy-G]

Re: Woodcarving for mental health

Then there's me ...... I had brain surgery in Feb.

[wade clark]

Re: Woodcarving for mental health

I've learned to be comfortable with my mind and grin at those who are not. Mental stimulation doing anything you enjoy is good for the brain, sometimes even for the brains of others... But that's their concern, not mine!
Wade
p.s. I like fruit cake and didn't even get a bite of it this Christmas! Got plenty of other goodies though!

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

Re: Woodcarving for mental health

Hi All, As I have reached that stage in my life wherein one becomes concerned about holding on to mental faculties I am trying to make certain that my activities assist me in this area. My question is: Does woodcarving help people stay mentally alert? Do you know of any woodcarvers that have fallen victim to dementia, Alzheimers Etc. There is a growing body of research that indicates that stimulating mental activity helps keeps us sharp. I'm hoping that my woodcarving helps us do that. Anyone have insights into this? As always I look forward to hearing from any and all. Thanks

Woodcarving helps keep our knives sharp lol, not sure about our minds

[squbrigg]

Re: Woodcarving for mental health

Lynn......
Man who talks to animal....he's ok!
Man who talks to animal and animal talks back....still ok!
Man who talks to animal, and animal talks back and man listens.....man in trouble!!!

Grandpabatball ..... My friend, I could write a book on this topic. But, I'll try to keep it brief.

I have been ship modelling and carving for 36+ years, and enjoyed it as a hobby for every moment of those years. 1998 I was injured in a car accident, suffered a tramatic brain injury and neck and back injuries. For a year, I wasn't able to do anything, had to slowly gain ground to just carry out the daily functions of life. When I had sufficient strength and endurance, I got back at carving, had to relearn much or "reawaken" the skills that got scrambled. Made a lot of mistakes, but perservered, and am still at it. Carving was my life line, it gave me that little bit of the day that I wasn't focused on pain and depressed with what I had lost. When I picked up a tool, I focused all my attention on that task, it was perfect therapy for my impared:memory, concentration, problem solving difficulties and attention. Even when I was in the rehab center for brain injury recovery, they went out and bought tools for me to use, they knew it was a perfect therapy for me.

I continue to carve, I struggle with limited endurance and still fight with pain daily, but, I have learned alternate methods of doing things, I use power to rough out and finish with edged tools. It takes me forever to do things and there are days that I'm not able to pick up a tool because my head is too confused and I just can't focus on any one thing, but I always get back at it. It helps!

Sorry I can't express it better than that, but it works for me and others with similar difficulties. I had read that folks who played music didn't fall victium to those senior problems, so it may have something to do with "arts" and the focus it takes to do them. It must help the brain .... force the brain, to work and stay sharp. Good luck.

Bob

[Ron Davidson]

Re: Woodcarving for mental health

Very well said Bob!
Ron

[Just Carving]

Re: Woodcarving for mental health

I think that carving would definitely help improve our mental faculties simply because it is a stress reliever--at least for me, it is. I can be totaly stressed out from work, looking after my elderly Father, illness, etc. and all I need to do is pick up one of my carving tools, and all my troubles take a back seat and my mind clears. I am so interested in carving that I forget a lot of what is happening or has happened. So, in my mind, stress relief would definitely ease not only mental illness, but it would also help in the area of physical ailments. Since stress and illness can feed off each other, carving is the "antidote", as well as any other relaxing activity.

[Paul_Guraedy]

Re: Woodcarving for mental health

I believe that the involvement in creativity (anything beyond the pointy stick phase qualifies with woodcarving) is good for the mind and and is therefore theraputic.

Just start carving in public, listen to what people say about your activity in relation to their ability to do the same thing and you will quickly realize that you are well outside the accepted definition of "normal".

I have long suspected that the more creative a person is, the further that individual is from the mental mainstream of society. This is why so much value is placed on "art" which is the embodiment of "non-normal".

Therapy is primarily exercising the ability to channel and control activity whether mental, physical, or a combination of both. Certainly this is good.

[squbrigg]

Re: Woodcarving for mental health

Paul .... well put and you are right on the public carving thing, and normal vrs other. The discipline it takes to carve and create must, as you say, "channel and control activity" as well, I believe it forces the brain to use "new areas" to do what once was preformed by a previous section that may have been damaged or deteriorating. The mind is a funny thing, delicate and fragile, but can work wonders when applied in ways "outside the norm" to achieve results previously unattempted. Never stop trying!

Bob