Wild Camping?

I am currently going through an episode of agoraphobia which started before the COVID19 outbreak and the virus has only made it worse BUT I am starting to do some exposure therapy techniques and slowly introduce the idea of leaving my house. 

I always loved camping as a child and would frequently set up camp and do bush crafting out in my mums garden. It was deffo a hyperfixation for me. I have recently rekindled that hyperfixation and I have a real want and need to get back into it.  

I would really love to go on a nice hike and do some wild camping as an end goal for my exposure therapy. 

But for the time being, I am going to start camping in the garden again, like I did as a child. Taking baby steps at first, going out there for an hour and if I feel like staying out there then I can, but if I want to come in, then that's fine too. But I have to make it the whole hour at least. Then gradually over time, increase the cut off time until overnights is possible, then bump it up to spending the weekend in my little campsite. 

My question is, does anyone else have a hyperfixation with camping? Wild camping experience? Do you think it would be cool if a wild camp / hike trip was organized so a small group of auties could get together and bond over the love of camping and being autistic haha. Because that would be something I would be interested in once I am out of this episode haha. 

  • yeah the knight fights look like fun but quite dangerous but if you want to do larp there is a company called curious pastimes i still know a few people that do it and have done for about 25 years i should be able to put in contact with them if you want to

  • i would do that if there was a group nearby i came across full contact medieval fighting a year ago (youtube) and was totally fascinated for about 6 months. still watch the odd video on people who do full contact sword fighting. 

  • I really truly LAUGHED OUT LOUD

  • gay - yes seen in army. they add humour sometimes when things are really down eg kenneth williams so critical for morale and humour

    pacifist - yes stretcher bearers WW1/2 who won medals

    vegan - now allowed in army ( depends on your rank )

    uncoordinated and confused  --- that is removed entirely by training

    mute ---- always handy in an ambush better than someone talking. use hand signals.

    noise of gun first time scares u

    second time less then

    around 10th shot u get a kick which grows and grows

    and sometimes , someone will have to jump on u to stop u shooting

    humans are truly weird

    Heart

  • i do like woods a few years back i used to do something called larp that was fun enjoyable and relaxing 

    https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=larping&form=HDRSC2&first=1&scenario=ImageBasicHover

    but back then my group only had about a dozen a week at most with all the running around we did we easily cover at least half a marathon cross country each time we did it but too many things started to change and that became history 

    but now with the exception of shopping my outside world consists of sitting on the balcony and looking at the trees though i recently got some wild bird food and I'm going to start putting out for them to let my old fondness for nature come forward again  

  • LOL, well apart from being gay, autistic, a pacifict, vegan, uncordinated, confused and mute in most groups groups, could never cope with the noise of a gun, but yeah, courses give me structure so def the right path for me.

  • Emmy is handling everything well

  • accept the fear( anxiety )  which is always there ..... but do it anyway !

  • thats so the correct path u'll be in the Marines next Slight smile

  • Yeah i find it hard to navigate at times, but that doesn't matter cos I'm really glad to have it. It's been really validating for me, and helped me identify traits I didn't realise I have, and learn about them. Overall I'm so much more happy with myself these past few months.

    I bought a book about Wild Camping, that inspired me a bit. I think the main thing is to practice with your kit at home, eg tent, sleeping bag, mat, etc. And like I said, you don't need to go more than 100m from your door to have an adventure and feel nature.

    I saw there's a 2 day course on wild camping in the lakes for £125. But i'm going to try and do it without spending money. I've also signed up to train as a Mountain Leader. Not to be a Mountain Leader, but as motivation to get out and learn the skills. An autistic friend of mine did it and passed.

    Thinking about getting into the outdoors more has made me really happy and I'm looking forward to small quiet adventures of being at peace in the dark. If i could camp in my garden i'd be out there!

  • I have 1 friend had I have only seen him once this year lol. I mainly just stick to my two rooms in the house, which is my bedroom and office. Both have been kitted out to be as outdoorsy as possible though haha. Lots of plants and even moss terrariums haha But I really do want to get back out to the woods. My rooms just arent cutting it any more haha. 

    Thats how I feel currently about going outside, just the thought of it and even typing it out. Oooooph. Anxiety haha  

  • Cheers both for the messaging advice! And good to know it's being worked on.

  • you're welcome Emmy 

    friends wise I have very few, take last year for instance I only saw 5 friends in total one of them once and 3 of them twice and my family live 250 miles away so until I'm off sick Leave I stick to my bedroom 95% of the time so i am alone most of the time as well

    yeah i can handle the normal waters like showers and small pools and thunder storms but if the water can go over my head then no no no I'm even a little anxious just typing this and thinking about it (i had a few bad days with water when i was young)

  • i need to warn you there currently is a defect.

    after about 3 messages each you cant see any more.

    the work around. 

    each person immediately deletes their old messages and refreshes their page

    that way you can continue to PM someone

    I used, to use it quite a bit, and it was quite good then. The developer are currently working to get this fixed ASAP.

  • Oooo! I have found out how you send private messages. Go to your profile and scroll down to your friends and under their profile picture it says "connect" click that and it should open a little command bit with "send private message" "unfollow" "unfriend". Just click the "send private message and it should take you to the page.

  • Yeah this site is a bit hard to navigate haha. All I said was I would love to talk with you about camping some more haha. I would loooove to go to The Lake District. It looks like such a lovely place to wild camp. 

    Deffo will make that a goal to reach at some point, but for now I am just gonna stick to the south east so I am not too far from home. I hear Suffolk has some nice areas to wild camp?

  • , it looked like you added a message when you friend requested me, but i couldn't find out how to read it, and can't find how to message either!

  • I live near the Lake District, so done a few bivvy bag nights locally. I don't know the SE at all apart from london. Just going to the local river suits me, it doesn't have to be a big trip.