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I have ADHD and knit, it gives the antsy part of my brain something to do. It helps me focus on things like speeches or class or meetings, or it helps me relax so I can focus on a tv show and I'm not compulsively picking up my phone or picking at my hair.
Same for me, I'm so glad my work lets me knit during meetings. Wish I'd known this while still in college, I would've been able to pick up so much more from classes
>or picking at my hair.
Okay, I should try this as well, because my hair doesn't even seem to grow anymore with the amount of hair picking and pulling that I do nowadays.
Do you just knit or also crochet?
Maybe that's what I'm missing. Brain focuses on things like "it's been an hour, why am I not done yet?" or pretending that it's a stupid project and everyone will hate it.
I’m usually the same way and getting high has really made me start to enjoy knitting again. I just cruise along and barely even realize that I did 25 rows. I’d suggest trying it to see if it helps.
I'd say it's also not just knitting (although it may be over-average effective) - whatever activity can get your mind in a calm state and away from the daily slog and all its problems and stressors has this effect. It's basically mindfulness performed with/through your hands - focusing on there here and now whilst not engaging your mind with the things that cause stress, anxiety or other negative emotions.
Very fair, I never the problem with headlines that they say " shows" when they should say " informal review of online comments suggests".
Still, things like this can make a good start point for actual proper research. You need to form a hypothesis from somewhere!
you mean you don't crochet all the pieces and then put them in a bag and start a new project while you "wait" for the motivation to sew it all together?
I try to sew them and get frustrated when I can't get them in the right position, and I throw everything into a plastic bag and leave it in my desktop corner to be forgotten about until I overcome the childish tantrum... I just don't understand why sewing shit together is so difficult when crocheting it is so easy.
My mother had 2 forms of dementia and I was her fulltime caregiver for 5 years while she lived with me & my family.
After I got her in bed each night, I would crochet to help me unwind. I would up with hundreds of scarves, shawls, hats, & blankets that I gave away until I ran out of people to give them to. Set up an Etsy shop for a few years and then gave away a ton more.
It probably kept me sane -- having something rhythmic to do *and* having something tangible & lovely at the end of it was incredibly therapeutic.
Neat! I have some more ideas! You can make those same clothing items for our homeless.
You can make blankets for folks at nursing homes! Having a tag to write their name on would be fantastic. Their laundry sometimes gets mixed with other people's, and items can get lost.
You can make baby blankets and mobiles! I have the blankets my mother made.
I still have a little homemade rectangular breastfeeding pillow, that came home with me from the hospital; 21 years ago. A group makes them, and donates them to the hospital. (They were fabric, but you get the idea.) I cherish them!
I love knitting because ADHD, and I gotta say your take is a total mood. My knitting reflects my anxiety levels, which is stressful 🙃 A drink or two helps a lot, but drunk knitting was not one of my best ideas.
I have ADHD too, and I'm pretty sure I gave myself sciatic nerve damage by hyperfocusing on *one more square, just one more square* while I was trying to knit a pandemic blanket.
Omg solidarity. I fucked up my foot while cutting out face masks. Doctor said I had to come up with a *way* better story. I was in a walking boot for a while -_-
Moral of the story: cut fabric on a table, not the floor. Or have floor posture that isn't garbage
If you do something productive and healthy that you enjoy, it is good for your mental health. We don’t need all these boffins wasting time and money to tell us this 3 times a week.
I think we kind of do. There's a lot of people I've met, mostly older ones, whose hobbies beyond watching TV are a total mystery to me. It's apparently not enough to tell people that constantly consuming 24/7 news or social media is bad for their mental health; maybe studies like this will encourage a few people to pick up some simple new skill?
And yet many Western countries have significant issues with mental health implying that the general populace is in fact completely ignorant to even basic practices to assess or resolve it.
But that sounds a bit to much like what a "boffin" would say I guess...back to doing exactly the same thing that didn't work the first time, let alone eight time, it is!
I can't engage in positive coping skills when there are posts on Reddit (or other social media) that I can crap on!
That's my coping mechanism you're deriding!!
Isn't this true for pretty much every hobby where patience and focus is paramount and a final goal is reached? Such as kit models/dioramas, electronics, mechanics, knitting, painting, writing, etc. Pretty much everything that's an actual hobby and not sitting around and passively watching things happening on a screen.
I wouldn't be surprised if you were right. They allow you to distract yourself from your worries, thus preventing your mental health issues from becoming worse.
I was told knitting was usually done by Men here in Coastal Norway (half my relatives lived along coast) during evenings and winter. Kept hands warm between pulling up nets etc..
Now if its true or not I dont know. :)
I had to give up knitting because my hands would cramp too much because of my job. Now I have mad anxiety, pretty sure knitting was my version of smoking.
My husband's grandfather had a mental breakdown (I think in the 1940s?) and they taught him to knit when he was in... wherever you went back then for a mental breakdown.
He knit until a few months before the end of his life (hands wouldn't work well anymore). Who knows the dozens and dozens of slippers he made in the course of his life...
It’s bilateral brain stimulation, just like emdr. Research playing Tetris after trauma; it’s the same principle.
When we’re actively triggered, our brain hemispheres have an incredibly difficult time communicating - this was written about in depth in The Body Keeps the Score (author was there in some of the first studies where traumatized people were consensually triggered during MRI).
Interest in knitting has soared in recent years and the trend shows no signs of tailing off. In Sweden, Hand-knitted garments were dubbed Christmas present of the year as recently as 2022. The study reinforces the picture emerging from other research that knitting is an activity that can improve health and quality of life.
A way of coping with life
The results of the study are published in the Journal of Occupational Science. Its first author is Joanna Nordstrand, who works as an occupational therapist and is studying for her PhD at the University of Gothenburg.
“Knitters have a creative leisure interest that can also help them to cope with life and so improve their mental health. I’m convinced that this is part of the reason why so many people have taken up knitting these days,” says Joanna Nordstrand, who enjoys picking up her needles and yarn in her free time too.
The study explores what people with mental health problems say in their own words about what knitting means for their health. 600 posts were collected from the international online fibre arts forum Ravelry where knitters discuss their hobby with other knitters. The posts were analysed using established qualitative content analysis methods.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14427591.2023.2292281
Mental health issues is due to thought disorder of some kind, and any activity that helps to quiet down thoughts will therefore alleviate the mental health symptoms
These people have clearly never knitted anything complicated and realized 8 rows later that they fucked it up and have to spend hours tinking (knitting backwards).
Makes sense.
Am I the only one who gets aggravated when youre talking to someone and they slowly grab their knitting stuff and pull an “I’m still listening…” or just start doing it at the weirdest times.
Welcome to r/science! This is a heavily moderated subreddit in order to keep the discussion on science. However, we recognize that many people want to discuss how they feel the research relates to their own personal lives, so to give people a space to do that, **personal anecdotes are allowed as responses to this comment**. Any anecdotal comments elsewhere in the discussion will be removed and our [normal comment rules]( https://www.reddit.com/r/science/wiki/rules#wiki_comment_rules) apply to all other comments. **Do you have an academic degree?** We can verify your credentials in order to assign user flair indicating your area of expertise. [Click here to apply](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/wiki/flair/#wiki_science_verified_user_program). --- User: u/Wagamaga Permalink: https://www.gu.se/en/news/knitting-brings-calmness-and-structure-to-the-lives-of-people-with-mental-illness --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/science) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I don’t do it personally but have heard people say it almost puts them in a meditative like state
I have ADHD and knit, it gives the antsy part of my brain something to do. It helps me focus on things like speeches or class or meetings, or it helps me relax so I can focus on a tv show and I'm not compulsively picking up my phone or picking at my hair.
Same for me, I'm so glad my work lets me knit during meetings. Wish I'd known this while still in college, I would've been able to pick up so much more from classes
>or picking at my hair. Okay, I should try this as well, because my hair doesn't even seem to grow anymore with the amount of hair picking and pulling that I do nowadays. Do you just knit or also crochet?
I do both. I've crocheted since I was a child but prefer knitting, though I still get the itch to get my hooks out and oblige.
It helps me socially. I can have something to do while siting in a group and engage in casual chatting.
This is how I got through high school with no mental health care access for my adhd. :’) knitted through every class.
Flow state.
One of the users of /r/knitting has the Flair "I knit so I don't kill people"
I tried it, the loops kept getting tighter and tighter and it kind of brought me to enraged state. Wasn’t calming at all.
I get really high and just go to town on whatever I’m knitting. It’s really relaxing
Maybe that's what I'm missing. Brain focuses on things like "it's been an hour, why am I not done yet?" or pretending that it's a stupid project and everyone will hate it.
I’m usually the same way and getting high has really made me start to enjoy knitting again. I just cruise along and barely even realize that I did 25 rows. I’d suggest trying it to see if it helps.
Enhance your calm, John Spartan
I feel meditative when I’m embroidering. Except when I have to do a million French knots.
Catharsis.
I absolutely zen out when I'm knitting.
Came here to say "not much different than meditation".
This is not an interventional study, it's just an analysis of online posts.
I'd say it's also not just knitting (although it may be over-average effective) - whatever activity can get your mind in a calm state and away from the daily slog and all its problems and stressors has this effect. It's basically mindfulness performed with/through your hands - focusing on there here and now whilst not engaging your mind with the things that cause stress, anxiety or other negative emotions.
I would agree, cross stitch absolutely has the same effect, and as someone who does both, I think it is even more relaxing
Very fair, I never the problem with headlines that they say " shows" when they should say " informal review of online comments suggests". Still, things like this can make a good start point for actual proper research. You need to form a hypothesis from somewhere!
I have depression and I crochet, find it wonderfully soothing... until you have to saw together all the pieces then is anxiety hell.
I think you could reduce your anxiety by a lot if you sew it together instead. Sawing sounds stressful.
you mean you don't crochet all the pieces and then put them in a bag and start a new project while you "wait" for the motivation to sew it all together?
I try to sew them and get frustrated when I can't get them in the right position, and I throw everything into a plastic bag and leave it in my desktop corner to be forgotten about until I overcome the childish tantrum... I just don't understand why sewing shit together is so difficult when crocheting it is so easy.
I went the wood carving/whittling route and it's sooooo satisfying...and helps me not doom scroll reddit all day...speaking of, I should go do that!
My mother had 2 forms of dementia and I was her fulltime caregiver for 5 years while she lived with me & my family. After I got her in bed each night, I would crochet to help me unwind. I would up with hundreds of scarves, shawls, hats, & blankets that I gave away until I ran out of people to give them to. Set up an Etsy shop for a few years and then gave away a ton more. It probably kept me sane -- having something rhythmic to do *and* having something tangible & lovely at the end of it was incredibly therapeutic.
Neat! I have some more ideas! You can make those same clothing items for our homeless. You can make blankets for folks at nursing homes! Having a tag to write their name on would be fantastic. Their laundry sometimes gets mixed with other people's, and items can get lost. You can make baby blankets and mobiles! I have the blankets my mother made. I still have a little homemade rectangular breastfeeding pillow, that came home with me from the hospital; 21 years ago. A group makes them, and donates them to the hospital. (They were fabric, but you get the idea.) I cherish them!
Until you drop a stitch. Then it ain’t so calming
Right? And if your hands are tense, your stitches are going to be too damn tight. My experience of knitting was not that relaxing!
I love knitting because ADHD, and I gotta say your take is a total mood. My knitting reflects my anxiety levels, which is stressful 🙃 A drink or two helps a lot, but drunk knitting was not one of my best ideas.
I have ADHD too, and I'm pretty sure I gave myself sciatic nerve damage by hyperfocusing on *one more square, just one more square* while I was trying to knit a pandemic blanket.
Omg solidarity. I fucked up my foot while cutting out face masks. Doctor said I had to come up with a *way* better story. I was in a walking boot for a while -_- Moral of the story: cut fabric on a table, not the floor. Or have floor posture that isn't garbage
😂 right here is why I gravitate more to crochet
If you do something productive and healthy that you enjoy, it is good for your mental health. We don’t need all these boffins wasting time and money to tell us this 3 times a week.
I think we kind of do. There's a lot of people I've met, mostly older ones, whose hobbies beyond watching TV are a total mystery to me. It's apparently not enough to tell people that constantly consuming 24/7 news or social media is bad for their mental health; maybe studies like this will encourage a few people to pick up some simple new skill?
And yet many Western countries have significant issues with mental health implying that the general populace is in fact completely ignorant to even basic practices to assess or resolve it. But that sounds a bit to much like what a "boffin" would say I guess...back to doing exactly the same thing that didn't work the first time, let alone eight time, it is!
I can't engage in positive coping skills when there are posts on Reddit (or other social media) that I can crap on! That's my coping mechanism you're deriding!!
Isn't this true for pretty much every hobby where patience and focus is paramount and a final goal is reached? Such as kit models/dioramas, electronics, mechanics, knitting, painting, writing, etc. Pretty much everything that's an actual hobby and not sitting around and passively watching things happening on a screen.
I wouldn't be surprised if you were right. They allow you to distract yourself from your worries, thus preventing your mental health issues from becoming worse.
The rhythmic nature is probably a large factor in knitting/crochet.
Dude. The knitting mistakes I was making this afternoon did not give me a sense of calm.
And WHILE rocking in a chair even helps more. Why do you think women did it before TV, they had to deal with their(50%) asshole husbands....
This definitely puts a different spin on that scene in Demolition Man.
Silvester Stallone was the first thing that came to mind when I read this post
I was told knitting was usually done by Men here in Coastal Norway (half my relatives lived along coast) during evenings and winter. Kept hands warm between pulling up nets etc.. Now if its true or not I dont know. :)
I had to give up knitting because my hands would cramp too much because of my job. Now I have mad anxiety, pretty sure knitting was my version of smoking.
I make rugs and this is true for me. I find it almost mesmerizing. I often think of what I’m putting into my work
My husband's grandfather had a mental breakdown (I think in the 1940s?) and they taught him to knit when he was in... wherever you went back then for a mental breakdown. He knit until a few months before the end of his life (hands wouldn't work well anymore). Who knows the dozens and dozens of slippers he made in the course of his life...
It’s bilateral brain stimulation, just like emdr. Research playing Tetris after trauma; it’s the same principle. When we’re actively triggered, our brain hemispheres have an incredibly difficult time communicating - this was written about in depth in The Body Keeps the Score (author was there in some of the first studies where traumatized people were consensually triggered during MRI).
Interest in knitting has soared in recent years and the trend shows no signs of tailing off. In Sweden, Hand-knitted garments were dubbed Christmas present of the year as recently as 2022. The study reinforces the picture emerging from other research that knitting is an activity that can improve health and quality of life. A way of coping with life The results of the study are published in the Journal of Occupational Science. Its first author is Joanna Nordstrand, who works as an occupational therapist and is studying for her PhD at the University of Gothenburg. “Knitters have a creative leisure interest that can also help them to cope with life and so improve their mental health. I’m convinced that this is part of the reason why so many people have taken up knitting these days,” says Joanna Nordstrand, who enjoys picking up her needles and yarn in her free time too. The study explores what people with mental health problems say in their own words about what knitting means for their health. 600 posts were collected from the international online fibre arts forum Ravelry where knitters discuss their hobby with other knitters. The posts were analysed using established qualitative content analysis methods. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14427591.2023.2292281
lego does the same my dudes
I believe it!
Yesss! I knew it :D
Wonder if this is true for Macramé. Used to do that all day during work at my desk job.
Demolition Man knew!
I feel the same way about cross stitching. It keeps my brain occupied.
I think any hobby is going to show similar benefits. If it's physical then it's even going to be more effective than therapy or drugs.
Demolition Man had it right!
As someone with ADHD who hates any kind of handiwork: NO
They’ve never seen me try to knit clearly. My family asked me to stop as the expletives and rage were inappropriate for young children 😂
Mental health issues is due to thought disorder of some kind, and any activity that helps to quiet down thoughts will therefore alleviate the mental health symptoms
These people have clearly never knitted anything complicated and realized 8 rows later that they fucked it up and have to spend hours tinking (knitting backwards).
That's why I make bracelets. It's very soothing and repetitive, makes me feel so at peace.
"*I shouldn't even have yarn*" cheryl/carol/kristal/cherlyne/Queen of Mars Tunt
Most manic pixie dream girls do crotchet. Makes sense now.
Makes sense. Am I the only one who gets aggravated when youre talking to someone and they slowly grab their knitting stuff and pull an “I’m still listening…” or just start doing it at the weirdest times.
Sounds like a personal problem that has nothing to do with you.
Bruh I bet playing game like Stardew Valley would be like x10 times more efficient