Photography is a great release and personally I find it great for maintaining mental health. Why? Well it just gets you out and about looking at things you'd normally walk past without giving them a second glance.

Your approach to starting is perfect. Just head out with the camera and play! If I were to make a recommendation for moving forward it would be to get your head around ISO settings, then aperture and then shutter speed. Before long you'll be comfortable with shooting in manual (although I still mostly shoot in aperture priority mode (Av)).