David Lyons of Manchester, England, was diagnosed with many complex mental health struggles, but found that going fishing significantly improved his mindset and mental health. By citing the confidence-building and socialization that fishing brings, Lyons teamed up with local mental health organizations in 2020 to develop Tackling Minds, an organization that aims to provide those who are struggling with disability, mental health, and addiction with a stigma-free environment to make friends and participate in the therapeutic act of fishing. The organization provides all of the rods and equipment needed, along with coaches to help newbies learn how to properly apply bait, cast a line, and reel it in.
@tacklingminds The mist heartbreaking interview with a gentleman who comes fishing with Tackling Minds. Show your support for mental health and please give us a follow. TIGHT LINES FOR HEALTHY MINDS #mentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness #mentalhealthmatters #mentalillness #fyp
Fishing promotes mental health
University research supported Lyons’ claim that fishing is a helpful activity that promotes better mental health. In 2012, the National Health Service recommended Tackling Minds as a “social prescribing activity” for those with mental health struggles. Social prescriptions, also known as community referrals, allow medical professionals to recommend patients to local, non-clinical activities. Lyons was encouraged to learn that fishing as a therapeutic treatment wasn’t just anecdotal but had academic backing as well.
“We have been told on numerous occasions by our service users that if it were not for the fishing sessions, they don’t think they’d be alive today,” said Lyons. “To now have scientific evidence to back up what we’ve been saying all along is unbelievable, to say the least. The wider implications this research will have, not only in the angling sector, but also in mental health provision, will be amazing to see.”
In 2025, after 2,300 people had been prescribed a day of fishing through Tackling Minds, Lyons received The King’s Award for Voluntary Service from Buckingham Palace. Tackling Minds received the award announcement as the organization celebrated its fifth anniversary and recent expansion into another region of the country.
- YouTube youtu.be
“This is the recognition for the outstanding work of our volunteers who are the backbone of our organization, and give up their time to support other people’s mental health and well-being,” said Lyons on Tackling Minds’ YouTube channel.
The UK isn't the only place you can get fishing therapy
Fishing to address mental health concerns and create community isn’t limited to the United Kingdom. There are a few organizations in the United States that offer similar services and programs. Angling Mental Health is similar to Tackling Minds in that it offers free equipment and coaching for angling excursions for kids to improve mental health. American veterans are offered friendship, mentorship, healing, and fly fishing through Project Healing Waters. Men suffering from loneliness and battling mental health problems can find people to help and friends to fish with through Fishing the Good Fight.
@life_safety #fishing #mentalhealth #mensmentalhealth #depression #anxiety
If you’re going through a rough time and could use a few friends, you may want to do some research to find a fishing organization near you and grab a pole. Whether you catch a fish or not, you're sure to reel in something good.
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Will your current friends still be with you after seven years?
Professor shares how many years a friendship must last before it'll become lifelong
Think of your best friend. How long have you known them? Growing up, children make friends and say they’ll be best friends forever. That’s where “BFF” came from, for crying out loud. But is the concept of the lifelong friend real? If so, how many years of friendship will have to bloom before a friendship goes the distance? Well, a Dutch study may have the answer to that last question.
Sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst and his team in the Netherlands did extensive research on friendships and made some interesting findings in his surveys and studies. Mollenhorst found that over half of your friendships will “shed” within seven years. However, the relationships that go past the seven-year mark tend to last. This led to the prevailing theory that most friendships lasting more than seven years would endure throughout a person’s lifetime.
In Mollenhorst’s findings, lifelong friendships seem to come down to one thing: reciprocal effort. The primary reason so many friendships form and fade within seven-year cycles has much to do with a person’s ages and life stages. A lot of people lose touch with elementary and high school friends because so many leave home to attend college. Work friends change when someone gets promoted or finds a better job in a different state. Some friends get married and have children, reducing one-on-one time together, and thus a friendship fades. It’s easy to lose friends, but naturally harder to keep them when you’re no longer in proximity.
Some people on Reddit even wonder if lifelong friendships are actually real or just a romanticized thought nowadays. However, older commenters showed that lifelong friendship is still possible:
“I met my friend on the first day of kindergarten. Maybe not the very first day, but within the first week. We were texting each other stupid memes just yesterday. This year we’ll both celebrate our 58th birthdays.”
“My oldest friend and I met when she was just 5 and I was 9. Next-door neighbors. We're now both over 60 and still talk weekly and visit at least twice a year.”
“I’m 55. I’ve just spent a weekend with friends I met 24 and 32 years ago respectively. I’m also still in touch with my penpal in the States. I was 15 when we started writing to each other.”
“My friends (3 of them) go back to my college days in my 20’s that I still talk to a minimum of once a week. I'm in my early 60s now.”
“We ebb and flow. Sometimes many years will pass as we go through different things and phases. Nobody gets buttsore if we aren’t in touch all the time. In our 50s we don’t try and argue or be petty like we did before. But I love them. I don’t need a weekly lunch to know that. I could make a call right now if I needed something. Same with them.”
Maintaining a friendship for life is never guaranteed, but there are ways, psychotherapists say, that can make a friendship last. It’s not easy, but for a friendship to last, both participants need to make room for patience and place greater weight on their similarities than on the differences that may develop over time. Along with that, it’s helpful to be tolerant of large distances and gaps of time between visits, too. It’s not easy, and it requires both people involved to be equally invested to keep the friendship alive and from becoming stagnant.
As tough as it sounds, it is still possible. You may be a fortunate person who can name several friends you’ve kept for over seven years or over seventy years. But if you’re not, every new friendship you make has the same chance and potential of being lifelong.