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Geocachers and mental illness...

me_chris

By me_chris
in General geocaching topics

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me_chris

me_chris

Posted
Posted

No angst or advice or question or anything really in this thread - just a thought I had today...

 

- Earlier today, I found myself hot gluing wood chips to a 35mm film canister...

- Yesterday, I got WAY too excited about buying a lock-n-lock...

- Most of the time, I obsess about finding/hiding otherwise worthless junk...

- I walk around all the time looking for hiding spots...

- I spend long amounts of time walking in circles in the woods staring at a tiny LCD screen mumbling "darn tree cover... my accuracy is only 67 feet!"

 

Anybody else out there with some psychology experience think that Geocaching should be officially listed in the DSM-IV TR?

 

(For the non-psych people, that is: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Edition 4, Revised Text - used for diagnosing mental illness...)

 

Just a thought... :-D

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Vinny & Sue Team

+Vinny & Sue Team

Posted
Posted

No angst or advice or question or anything really in this thread - just a thought I had today...

 

- Earlier today, I found myself hot gluing wood chips to a 35mm film canister...

- Yesterday, I got WAY too excited about buying a lock-n-lock...

- Most of the time, I obsess about finding/hiding otherwise worthless junk...

- I walk around all the time looking for hiding spots...

- I spend long amounts of time walking in circles in the woods staring at a tiny LCD screen mumbling "darn tree cover... my accuracy is only 67 feet!"

 

Anybody else out there with some psychology experience think that Geocaching should be officially listed in the DSM-IV TR?

 

(For the non-psych people, that is: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Edition 4, Revised Text - used for diagnosing mental illness...)

 

Just a thought... :-D

It IS already listed in DSM-IV TR, under "Obsessive-compulsive disorders" under the subcategory "Disorders demanding immediate and massive intervention"....!!!

 

 

:rolleyes:

 

 

:PB):anibad::ph34r::rolleyes:

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PJPeters

+PJPeters

Posted
Posted (edited)

No angst or advice or question or anything really in this thread - just a thought I had today...

 

- Most of the time, I obsess about finding/hiding otherwise worthless junk...

- I walk around all the time looking for hiding spots...

- I spend long amounts of time walking in circles in the woods staring at a tiny LCD screen mumbling "darn tree cover... my accuracy is only 67 feet!"

Just a thought... :-D

 

These three in particular, for me. I find I continually look at fenceposts to see if they may have a cache hidden in them, or could possibly have one hidden there.

 

You did miss a couple:

- The shortest distance between two points may be a straight line, but that doesn't mean I can / am going to take it. :rolleyes:

- "C'mon, it'll only take a minute to find this, then I'll get back in the car!"

Edited by PJPeters
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BlueDeuce

+BlueDeuce

Posted
Posted

- Yesterday, I got WAY too excited about buying a lock-n-lock...

 

Ahhh, yes.. It seems like any store I go into anymore, everything is viewed through the lens of its usefulness as a container. The electronics department is still my favorite section, but the tupperware section is becoming a close second :rolleyes:

 

In all seriousness, I once looked at a lock-n-lock and suddenly remembered it could be used to hold food.

 

Thank you gc.com guidelines. :rolleyes:

 

If I'm in the Clearance aisle at a Stuffmart, I’m checking out what might make a good traveler.

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wimseyguy

+wimseyguy

Posted
Posted (edited)

Actually I think if it weren't for the time I get to spend geocaching I might need the services of a psychotrist or something like that. :rolleyes:

 

I consider the opportunity to take a stroll in the woods, or even drive around town focusing on nothing but the sights and sounds around me and the arrow on my GPS essential to my mental health. It really is amazing how easily I can forget about the pressures and stresses of work and home while I'm caching. Golf and other hobbies were never like this. :anibad:

 

Now, excessive forum posting, especially if it's done more than your cache finding, is a complete 'nother topic. It is quite likely related to mental illness. :rolleyes:

Edited by wimseyguy
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Harry Dolphin

+Harry Dolphin

Posted
Posted

i don't think enthusiasm about a hobby qualifies you as mentally ill.

 

my geocaching is only peripherally related to my illness. if it wasn't geocaching, it'd be something else.

 

i wish there were something funny about that. anything.

 

Well, it used to be trail hiking. But I ran out of trails. So I started heading north and south on the trail with the oversized-white blaze. Made it from Swift Run Gap to Pinkham Notch in only ten years! Decided that he Presi Traverse was designed for masochists, so I took up geocaching instead! Trail maintenance gets boring after ten years...

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TexasGringo

+TexasGringo

Posted
Posted

My wife wishs that my Garmin Maps would include a Psychotrist locator.

 

what's a psychotrist?

 

It is something I need after a speelling teachur.

 

oh, thank goodness. i was worried that it was some new psychobabble fad.

 

"Psychobabble" a new fad? Something new? Can I become a PREMIUM MEMBER? .......No No No...Don't answer that...it was a joke.

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TheAlabamaRambler

+TheAlabamaRambler

Posted
Posted

Geocaching may not lead to mental illness, but talking about geocaching seems to!

 

Like the To Ban or Not To Ban LPCs thread - with 535 posts and 6,477 views it's a train-wreck that sucks me in - I see a new post and I KNOW before going there that it's trivial and pointless, but I can't help myself - I can't just ignore that New Post icon glaring at me, I am compelled to go read it.

 

Now that's ill! ;)

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Wobbly Bob

Wobbly Bob

Posted
Posted (edited)

Here's a note I posted to a cache yesterday:

 

Okay, I may be starting a new recovery group: Geocachers Anonymous. Why? Well, does the fact that I keep going out on the incredible adventures dressed in my office clothes (while commuting to and from work) indicate an obsession?

 

"Hello, my name is Bob. I'm a geocacher. I can't get myself to stop. (sob) I don't want to stop. (sniff) I CAN'T stop! (sniff, sob, sob)."

 

I'm not logging a DNF because I decided to abandon the climb to wait until I can come back in proper wilderness attire.

 

I was SOOO close - just didn't feel safe climbing slippery rocks in leather dress shoes.

 

Looking forward to wearing my redneck clothes and getting this smiley!

 

 

The cache is located up a cliff and has a difficulty rating of 4, terrain rating of 4. The cliff is not high and with the proper shoes, it's not that tough. No rock climbing gear is really necessary

 

As I was climbing this cliff, I couldn't help but wonder what someone might be thinking if they saw my crazy a** up there in what looked like church clothes. <_<

 

So, does this mean I'm mentally ill? If it does, I'll live with the stigma! Heck, if it wasn't this it'd surely be something else.

 

He he ... happy caching.

Edited by Wobbly Bob
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greyhounder

+greyhounder

Posted
Posted

Bringing in just a bit of seriousness to the conversation, I think geocaching is great for one's mental health (speaking from personal experience) but there are most certainly dangers associated with it (and any hobby, when one has certain tendencies to become a bit too over-invested). Geocaching makes me happy. Geocaching sometimes makes my family worries (I do get a bit obsessive about it from time to time). Geocaching is a healthy physical activity (as long as it's not a drive up or LPC). I'm really glad I discovered geocaching. It has replaced some of my other, less healthy activities. I'm finding that I am becoming more social as a geocacher, more willing to share my joy for it with others.

 

Sure, you gotta be a little nutty to be a geocacher. Sure, geocaching makes you a bit nutty. But I wouldn't have it any other way!

 

Bec

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JennM

+JennM

Posted
Posted

I think there's a fine line :laughing:

 

I work too many hours - and I don't have a lot of free time. A friend/client told me about geocaching and how he uses it to get off his duff and out of the office, or else he'd likely spend all his time there - I could relate.

 

Geocaching gives me time with my kids, doing something fun, gets me out of the shop, out of the house, into the fresh air and takes my mind off the stresses of running a small business, and raising 2 kids as a single parent.

 

If somebody dropped me off in a park and said, "Walk the 2 miles around this trail," I'd tell them to get stuffed. However, put a GPSr in my hand and some co-ordinates to a cache, and I'm off like a herd of turtles with my kids, and we're on a MISSION.

 

I do find myself lately, scouring the site for new caches in my area, desperately looking at Google Earth to figure out why I couldn't find that stupid one last week that had us all turned around and mucking through mud... so that's perhaps borderline OCD :laughing: However, I'm glad I found out about this hobby because it has definitely given me something else to focus on besides business and housework.

 

Now the kids have incentive -- do your chores and we'll go geocaching on Sunday morning before I have to go to work! (That's my only time of the week when I can go - and it's amazing that teenagers will actually get up before the crack of noon if there's a hunt forthcoming!)

 

Jenn

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flask

+flask

Posted
Posted

in one existence they keep you on a floor where the elevator deposits you in a small lobby and after the nurses buzz you through two sets of steel doors you don't breathe fresh air for days at a time. there's a screen porch, but the screen isn't like at home; it is industrial steel with thousands of little holes in it and when you look out over the mountains you love so much, there's kind of a moiré effect. the air in the screen porch smells all wrong. it has the unmistakable scent of confinement.

 

three times a week they come to get you. the IV nurse starts your IV and you walk down to the anesthesiolgy department instead of the ride they offer you because you're so happy to be walking anywhere. the guy comes to interview you and as usual you have no idea what the date is and you've never been able to count backward by sevens but at least you can remember who the president is and with some horror you know where you are.

 

they check your drug allergies. they take your ipod out of your ears; you leave it playing because when they're done they'll put them back in so you have something to listen to on the other end. they put the bite block in your mouth and at the same time they start pumping chemical into your veins. you learn to identify some of the drugs by taste. there are muscle relaxants and anesthesia, anti-nauseals, caffeine, some other things. one of them (you don't know which) is so painful going in that you are often screaming and flailing with the pain even though they already have the mask over your face and in a few seconds you're unconscious.

 

eighteen minutes later you wake up on a gurney and they wheel you back to your room. usually you sleep past lunch.

 

in the alternate existence you get to be outside with your friends. maybe it's goofy, looking for tupperware in snowdrifts and maybe the scope of your suffering is still huge and incomprehensible. it doesn't matter why, but to be out in the sun or even the rain playing games with your friends sure beats that other life, and geocaching sure as hell didn't cause that.

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lacey38655

+lacey38655

Posted
Posted

I think my husband and I have warped our 4 year old daughter. She wants her own GPS. She can actually operate and tell us which direction to go. She has been known to find cache containers before us. Then there is the times she will ask, mom did you loose satalitte coverage because I am tired of walking in circles. She knows the differences in the cache containers also. Hey dad was that a small one or big one? If it was a small one then she gets mad because she won't get a trade item. But most of all, saturday mornings she will wake up and say are we going caching today? If we say no, she will say owww man.

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Dinoprophet

Dinoprophet

Posted
Posted

Actually I find the odd online nickname perfectly normal. It's the need to provide the correct pronounciation of your home I find kooky. :)

Well, I also have to answer whether it's "DEE-no" or "DY-no" (it's the latter). Never mind my real name. And there's an ongoing debate as to whether the Michigan Geocaching Organization is "MEE-go" or "MY-go". So I clear things up where I can.

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anaddicted23

+anaddicted23

Posted
Posted

Asking everyone at work who wants to find a new cache with me definitely gets me looks. I don't like going by myself so I end up buying someone lunch if they do a quick lunchtime cache with me. I've been described with too many adjectives to name about my obsession, but I keep telling them I'm not alone.

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