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How Keeping Busy Helps With My Bipolar Disorder
A personal essay
I love the distraction of labor. When I labor, I do not intrusively think about stabbing my eye out with a fork. When I work, I do not reflect upon how I am a reincarnation of Friedrich Nietzsche. I love the distraction of work.
Each mental health disorder and each person with a given mental health disorder has their own prescriptive needs. Through the wide labeling of mental health, people with drastically different disorders are given the same lifestyle prescriptions. Yet, a lifestyle change that may help combat one disorder may be detrimental towards another.
For example, if one states that keeping busy is good for mental health, this may only be true for certain mental health experiences. In my experience, keeping busy, very busy, has helped me combat the symptoms of bipolar 1 disorder.
Yet, this personal advice goes against some medical expertise, as the NHS states, “do not do shift work or work very long hours if you can avoid it” (NHS). Ultimately, I have come to understand that bipolar disorder is a disorder of indulgence or, in simpler terms, a disorder of overdoing things. A person with bipolar disorder indulges in both mania and depressiveness, and so anything that can distract from indulgence is highly beneficial.
