Borovica,, Tamara; Kokanović, Renata; Seal, Emma Louise; Flore, Jacinthe; Boydell, Katherine; Blackman, Lisa and Hayes, Laura. 2024. What does leisure have to do with mental health – arts, creative and leisure practices and living with mental distress. Leisure Studies, ISSN 0261-4367 [Article] (In Press)

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Abstract or Description

There is a growing interest in the role of leisure, arts and creative activities in cultivating health and wellbeing across different contexts. Leisure sports have historically been considered beneficial for achieving health, and similar focus has recently been placed on arts and creativity. Recent research into the role of arts and creative engagement for wellbeing highlights the benefits of these modes of engagement on emotional wellbeing and social connectedness. In this article, we examine the ways arts, creative and leisure practices and mental health converge, co-exist and collide. We draw on feminist leisure studies scholarship and Sarah Ahmed’s work on emotion to discuss insights from our research into the everyday experiences of people living with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD). We utilise qualitative methods to investigate people’s experiences of meaningful leisure practices and the dynamics between leisure practices and living well with the distress. We explore how leisure activities initiate complex processes of discovery and production of meanings, identity and wellbeing. Our discussion emphasises that leisure practices contribute to producing everyday forms of self-care and provide transformative space for self-discovery yet are simultaneously inseparable from the politics of living with mental distress while navigating accumulated effects of distress.

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2024.2376016
Additional Information:	Funding: The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research and authorship of this article: This work was supported by the Australian Research Council Linkage Project [grant number LP190100247].
Keywords:	Mental health; mental distress; borderline personality disorder (BPD); creative leisure; wellbeing
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Media, Communications and Cultural Studies
Dates:	Date Event 28 June 2024 Accepted 21 July 2024 Published Online
Item ID:	37369
Date Deposited:	22 Jul 2024 08:46
Last Modified:	22 Jul 2024 08:46
Peer Reviewed:	Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/37369

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