Do you easily get bored now that you have a disability ?
When you've been super busy all your working life to suddenly having loads of free time after becoming disabled, the switch can be jarring. You may not know who you are anymore, much less know what to do with yourself. And it's in this unfocused environment when boredom may creep in.
Boredom shouldn't be taken lightly; it's a negative emotion that can lead to clinical depression so it's something that needs to be addressed as soon as it's noticed. So what should you do when you are disabled and bored?
Before jumping into specific activities and hobbies, it's worth zooming out for a moment to ask yourself whether there's something in your life you're doing (or not doing) to elicit the boredom you're experiencing. Here are some suggestions to help answer that question for you.
Keep a Set Schedule
When you don't have a schedule to stick to, it's easy to become distracted and unproductive. For starters, make an effort to go to bed at the same time every night and get up at the same time every morning. Same goes for mealtimes, if possible.
Be Spontaneous
Sounds like there is a contrdiction to the last point, right? Well, not really. While keeping a set schedule is necessary, it's also important to break up your routine from time to time. For instance, you could decorate your house or apartment to celebrate holidays and events like Halloween and the Super Bowl and buy appropriate food for the occasion.
Another idea is to do what you'd normally do at home just in a different setting like reading a magazine at your local Starbucks or Barnes & Nobles book shop.
Maintain Your Dignity
Even if no one sees you, make sure to shower/bathe and groom yourself regularly. You'll feel much better about yourself and when you feel better about yourself, you'll likely want to be productive in some way.
Stay Busy
Make an effort to do at least one productive activity per day. Whether that's going out for food shopping or cleaning a room in your apartment, focusing your attention on a specific task helps ward off boredom.
Okay, now on to some activities…
GREAT ACTIVITIES FOR THE DISABLED
1. Get Physically Active
There's no question that exercise of all kinds can help lift your spirits and motivate you to try other activities. Depending on the severity of your disability, Tai Chi, yoga, swimming or walking in the park are some great ways to get your blood pumping.
2. Do Volunteer Work
Volunteering is a wonderful way to cultivate empathy while staying busy. Depending on your interests, there are many places to volunteer your services including nursing homes, hospitals, animal shelters, libraries, after-school programs, political candidates and teaching English as a second language. To help connect you to the right opportunity, give Volunteer Match a try.
3. Plan a Trip
We all need something to look forward to even if it's in the distant future and planning a trip is a fun way to do it. A couple of websites to book vacations for disabled people include DisabledGo and Accessible Journeys. Bon voyage!
4. Travel Virtually
Are you homebound due to your disability? Well, you can still "travel" virtually by watching live streams of places from around the world using services like Earthcam and Google Earth.
5. Clean a Room
While cleaning a room in your house or apartment may not exactly qualify as a "fun" activity, you'll feel good knowing you accomplished a chore that needed to be done.
Did you notice anything missing from the list of activities? Well, if you guessed TV and/or movies, you guessed right. I purposely didn't include TV because watching the boob tube is a passive activity that only serves to sap motivation and cause depression when watched more than two hours per day. Same goes for video games. That's why it's best to stick to productive activities and/or hobbies to fight boredom.
Let's now look at some hobbies...
GREAT HOBBIES FOR THE DISABLED
6. Play Jigsaw Puzzles
Solving puzzles is a great way to increase concentration, expand creativity and make you more alert. Plus, it has the benefit of reducing your heart rate and blood pressure!
7. Make Crafts
They're many different arts and crafts you could pursue including scrapbooking, origami, knitting, and quilting. And if you've never tried to make crafts before, it's easy to learn how through online step-by-step classes like Craftsy.
8. Start Painting/Drawing
Here's a chance to tap into an ability perhaps you never knew you had — the graphic arts! Craftsy teaches several classes on the subject which are worthwhile looking into. But if picking up a brush isn't your thing, you can always take part in the current coloring books for adults craze!
9. Snap Photographs
Photography is a great hobby to inspire imagination and develop a keen eye to your surroundings. And if your disability restricts you from going outdoors, you can still learn to take creative photos indoors like still life and food photography. Another idea is to document your life visually with creative photos!
10. Start a Collection
Oh, they're soooo many things to collect like stamps, baseball cards, vinyl records, coins, teddy bears or even PEZ dispensers. The only caveat is that collecting can get very expensive!
11. Grow Your Own Herbs
While not a cure for boredom, there's something satisfying about growing your own herbs to flavor your food, plus it's a great stress reliever. Most herbs like cilantro, oregano, thyme, and basil need little care so why not start with these?
12. Learn a Foreign Language
Did you know learning a language is a great way to stave off dementia and aging of the brain? Plus, you'll become a better listener, planner, decision-maker and all around better communicator.
And now that we have shared some ideas, would you like to tell about your hobbies ?
Would be awesome to hear about it from you all!
@ilenia5
Hello, and I have SSI so I have never had a job. But to answer your question about being bored I would have to say I have hardly been bored or even lonely, maybe 3 times in my life, I love being alone and having my own company. My conditions cause me to lose interests in Hobbies but thats why I try to have many different types and explore even if i lose interest within seconds after attempting a hobby. I suppose im never bored or lonely though because I can be by myself by choice and do what I want to.
@VanessaGraceStory
Hi Vanessa, thanks for sharing!
I'm glad to hear that you enjoy your own company, that's positive in every life's condition! 
A big hug !
I do get bored when I'm not well. When I have energy it's easy to do these things. When not feeling well though, it's very difficult to actively engage in things. It's not always possible to say sit and do a jigsaw puzzle. I enjoy doing puzzle type games on my phone, but there are times where holding the phone, clicking on spots is hard to do.
I find that's where watching a fair bit of tv or other videos comes in. It's pretty rare where I don't have a day where at least some of my awake time requires me to be sitting/laying with limited movement. Then there are days where playing on my phone requires some of my best periods in the day, most of the day needs to be spent laying down. Sometimes even keeping my eyes open is hard, that's where passive activities like watching or listening to something comes in. It does get boring, what other options are there?
@AffyAvo
Hi Affy, thanks for sharing!
Well of course if someone does not feel well at all, things are more difficult.
We all need to choose to do what we feel to do and what we can do, that's also for hobbies and pastimes.
Huggies!
@ilenia5 It really becomes a bit of a balancing act when there's the 'I can' but the 'should' is the question.
Sometimes I'll push myself a little and go to the store or get into the backyard for a bit when it's not the best thing physically for me but it's doable and the boredom has dragged on too long.
@AffyAvo
Yes sure, the balance between i want and i can is basic.
It's good that you focus in it.
Best wishes Affy. 
I've found having spare time has made me be able to be more productive in certain ways. I tend to volunteer from home as much as i can making things for children who are even more ill than i am, play sims allot and hoping to come on here on a regular basis. I think sometimes we can look at our time as being boring but we can have allot of benefits compared to those who may have 9-5 jobs.
I was diagnosed with CFS/ME two years ago. I went from a very active lifestyle (I was training to join the military), to being essentially bedridden.
I started reading as much as I could, but often it required too much attention and I found myself needing to reread pages and still not absorbing anything. Watching TV was a cool way to pass time, but I would fall asleep almost right away and miss everything.
Eventually short walks were really helpful for my mental health (getting out of the house did wonders), but I'd need to spend the rest of the day recovering after.
I turned to art and music. I started learning accordion, although I couldn't play for long without getting tired. I made LOTS of music playlists, and made a point of always playing music in the background to make everything seem less static and oppressive. Playing with clay when I have the energy has been really entertaining too!
It sucks being so limited, but there are still ways to force some entertainment into daily life!