Hello Ty, welcome to the forums.
When you say it makes things appear farther away do you mean what you see through the view finder or in the captured photograph?
For the former, you may just want a magnifying eyepiece.
Amazon.com: Pentax O-ME53 Magnifying Eye Piece for all Pentax DSLR Bodies: Electronics Lots of folks use them, myself included.
For the latter, I'm going to take a shot in the dark and make an assumption that SLR cameras with interchangeable lenses are still pretty greek to you. If I'm wrong please accept my apologies and skip the following.
You may not have realized that the DA 18-250 lens has a zoom lock "switch". It is located at about an inch to the right of the "18" and says "LOCK". Slide that switch/tab forward so the red disappears and it will release the zoom ring.