Needing to be busy

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Does this describe you? If so, what would you say motivates you to want to keep busy?

I wish I was busy, but I learned laziness as an art form, so its very difficult to keep busy.

I'd say I always need to be busy.

My motivation comes down to not wanting to sit round doing nothing, and I think as I was unable to go to university or get a good career this is me attempting to make up for this; it's a desperate need to do something as I know I have potential going to waste, the problem is I don't work so I don't really have much to do or much money to do it with, so I'm constantly doing little bits and pieces to keep busy and it's never enough. I also get hyper-focused on things, I'll find I may have days when I am feeling a little lazy but need to get up and do something, then once I start I get into a roll and find I can't actually stop, or I get caught-up trying to do something perfectly.

If I don't keep busy, I started feeling anxious, and depressed.

No, I don't need to feel busy. I am always tired and in a brain fog and I enjoy wool gathering.

What motivates me? That when I'm not busy with something I just feel restless and uncomfortable, which isn't nice at all.
I have to be doing something so I'll pace about a bit until something pops up. Crap knows I have enough toys and stuff here to keep me busy so it generally doesn't take much digging.

I can't say that I always need to be busy, but I am always busy. There is always something that I want to do, something that is incomplete, something that can be improved. So it is not that I mind being idle; it is just that I just have such a restless mind that I am never short of things to do.

i have nothing against busyness-loving folk. this said, i need to vegetate, and i HATE busy-ness about as much as busy people hate relaxation. i love being lazy. all my life busybodies were calling me "SLACKER!" and telling me to "get busy!" i have had that crud up to HERE, so for the rest of my life i will just be lazy, and anybody that doesn't like it can go eat worms, as far as i'm concerned.

I try and keep busy, if my mind is not otherwise occupied, i start thinking...

I always have to be occupied with something, or I start to get irritated. It's a part of ASPD, so not surprising.

Last edited by dunbots on 15 Feb 2011, 12:54 am, edited 1 time in total.

I've always felt the need to be constantly busy until I've fallen violently ill. Once I'm healthy again, I'll be a little more careful with my energy.

I like being busy. When I have nothing to do, I'm lazy and unproductive. I end up feeling depressed and dissatisfied. When I have lots to do, I'm more optimistic and less self-critical. I have more energy and creativity. Being too busy isn't good, but it's better than not being busy enough.

I don't always have to be doing something. But I do need to have some project going. If I have some longish term project (take 3 months to a year) with a clearly defined end to the project (not a date but a definitive end mark such as something I want to have built or special activity I want to be able to do) to work on I find it easier to relax. Even if I'm not working very fast on my project just knowing I have one and am slowly working on it makes me feel better. Like ok, right now I'm just vegging out in front of the TV, but I have a plan and a goal and I did something towards it this week so I'm not being useless, I'm just working towards something at my own pace. Like when I was young the goal was learn enough English that I could read in my computer magazines whether a game was good or bad and why.

I find it really hard to do things that don't have clearly defined goals, and others seem to have a hard time understanding that. People sometimes tell me I should exercise, yet they don't grasp that that's a goal that's too vague. If the goal was 'improve physical stamina to where you can walk x miles within y hours without getting winded and climb z with ease' for the purpose of 'taking a special trip and climbing mountain a' I could understand the project. 'to get into shape' is too vague a goal. It's like saying 'you should make yourself more happier', leaving aside poor grammar, it's a goal that has such poor definition I wouldn't even know where to begin. It also has no clearly defined end purpose other than the project itself.

It's frustrating because I try to explain that my mind doesn't work like that and people don't even care to understand it, they just tell me I need to try harder to think in a way that's alien to me and leaves me confused, adrift and with growing anxiety. When I have no project I do get restless, more prone to depression and I start to forget things because nothing's sticking in my mind. There's no anchor to fix me to one place, so I drift.

I need to keep mentally busy.

If I don't, this is how things go: boredom --- > existential nausea ---- > suicidal.

I do need to be busy pretty much all my waking hours. My mother's always asking me, "Why don't you take a break? Doesn't your brain need a break?" I'm like, "Nope, break over." Then, she's always telling me that she's going to go "rest", which for me would be mind-numbing eye-clawing-out nosepicking boredom. Like you'd actually have to pick your nose to alleviate the boredom.

This describes me very well.

I CANNOT sit still and do nothing or think of nothing, ever. It feels like my mind is racing at the speed of light most of the time and just won't stop. It's almost painful.

In fact, my therapist told me I must practice 'doing nothing' as an exercise.