Climbing brings us joy. Well, at least most of the time… When we’re stressed about work, relationships, our health, or money, climbing can make us forget it all. It can even help people with serious psychological/emotional problems heal.
A really good friend of ours, Chris Rogers, is a psychiatrist and a climber and he wants to know just how powerful climbing is for our mental health. He’s doing a study on just that, and he needs your help in getting information from climbers.
–>> Please take his 6-10 minute survey
(I know it says 10-15-minute survey on the page, but it only took me 6 minutes…)
The Goal of the Study
Ultimately, Chris believes that climbing could be shown to have such a strong effect on depression, anxiety, and other issues that health insurance companies would start paying for patients to climb. At the very least, he wants practitioners to know that climbing is a viable therapeutic option for their patients.
Here’s a little more info on the study in Chris’s own words:
Hello, my name is Chris Rogers. I’m a long time climbing bum and more recent psychiatrist conducting research to evaluate potential measurable benefits of climbing.
I am a firm believer in the psychological benefits of climbing, and as a step towards providers confidently recommending climbing as a therapeutic alternative (and in a perfect world getting insurance companies to pay for these treatments), I am collecting data to try and measure what some of these benefits are. I am relying on climbers to help me collect this data.
It would help me out tremendously if you would be willing to take this simple 6-10 minute survey.
Thanks for your interest in advancing our understanding of just how powerful climbing can be!
Chris Rogers, MD
Why This Study Matters (to me)
As some of you know, I recently went through a major depression–a life-altering episode that I won’t go into detail about. There are 2 reasons I bring this very sore subject up:
1. Chris Rogers had a large hand in getting me through that time, and still helps me to this day.
2. Climbing was one of the only things that brought me joy through those months, so I know first hand how incredibly healing it can be. It was one of the few things that kept me going.
So, this study is really important to me because it’s important to Chris, and Chris is important to me (and he’s a great psychiatrist doing great things). And because I want therapists and doctors to know how powerful climbing can be for their patients.
Will You Help?
If you have 6-10 minutes to spare, please consider taking Chris’s survey. It took me 6 minutes to complete. And please share this survey with any of your climber friends who might be interested in helping the cause.
–>> Take The Survey
Thanks for hearing me out!
Neely
Dear Chris,
I really excited about your research. I stumbled on your web page as I am looking to write up a short ad to reach out to parents whose children have mental health issues to invite them into a private coaching program for their children where I will help students with their math curriculum and teach rock climbing as a combined tutoring session. I had two distressed students come my way a couple of years ago (anxiety, depression, cutting) and I developed a relationship with one of the families and took that particular student climbing and surfing on occasion. I also wrestle with anxiety and its close cousin (depression) and have seen a psychiatrist for years starting at the age of 26. I am currently a military wife and have a young son, so I am not climbing as much as I used to but I have had the privilege of training some with a very accomplished husband and wife (Anne Gray and Reto Hartmann) in Switzerland for a period of 5 months and it dramatically improved my focus, confidence and determination. Later, I moved home to pursue and dream of being a singer song writer and did not live close to a gym or climbing community. At that point I dreamed of opening a gym just to be near climbing again. I completed your survey but my answers are far lower than they would have been at the time in my life I was able to focus on climbing and outdoors 3 plus days a week. Again, I am a military wife with a toddler and a frequently deploying husband so there are other factors influence my current level of determination, anxiety and confidence, but I will say days I make it to the gym help me frame everything in a much more positive and determined light.
I am looking forward to your research and would love to help if I can. I have a master’s in education from Pepperdine University, a teaching credential in math, and a passion for sharing the joy and strength of climbing. I am hoping that I might be able to share my background in these areas as tools to help teens with anxiety, depression and/or ADHD. I am eager to see if this instinct we have about the mental health benefits of climbing is true for others as well as ourselves.
Blessings,
Natasha
I have a website http://www.climbout.co.uk which supports the idea of climbing and the outdoors to help our wellbeing. I started the site after learning how to climb in Spain 2013 just after my 40th birthday. Its a little more complicated than that but I would love to contribute Chris.
I would also like to share the survey on my site and FB page but I seem to b having problems with it loading 🙂 This may be my internet connection though but if you would like to email me jake@climbout.co.uk that would be great.
Neely – thanks for your help getting the word out and your excessively kind words! In the interests of full disclosure I should clarify that at this early stage of research all I can evaluate from this study is whether or not climbers seem to have typically higher (or lower) scores than general population samples on survey tools designed to measure the traits of self-efficacy, mindfulness and resiliency. Each of these traits being linked to improved mental health outcomes. We will also look at if the amount of time one has climbed has any impact on these scores. If there is an apparent association it will hopefully help us identify measurable targets to see if this effect is in fact due to climbing and how much climbing can help who in future studies. Thanks so much for the interest (I’m already blown away at the surge of responses you guys have submitted!).