Periods of productivity, followed by pathetic depression.

[WechtleinUns]

I have a question for everyone on here, about how best to deal with periods of productivity, followed by periods of listlessness and restlessness. I have very littler tolerance for the medical community at large, such that any medication is only to be used as a method of last resort.

Therefore, please allow me to explain my symptomatology in detail:

1. I have periods of intense productivity, where I study various languages and math skills in utter bliss.

2. Eventually, I will have the inkling to increase my social skills and try to become an upstanding member of the community.

3. I achieve step(2) with resounding success. But then...

4. After the period of social fraternization, I come home to a nearly empty house. I will lose interest in most of my language learning activities, and will hardly resume my mathematics work. A period of restlessness and frustration follows. I end up masturbating quite a lot, and having fits of melancholy and outburts of swearing.

5. Sometime later, I start to have an increase in productivity. Unfortunately, this usually causes a simultaneous destruction of the aforementioned social gains.

Any thoughts?

 

[King_Oni]

I can identify with this in the sense that I always feel I have to be in a certain state of mind.

This entire notion of changing around from interests back to social skills, and then "finding myself" again rarely works for me. It's either this or that.

I found that I can maintain a bit of social gain if I end up hanging out with people who share these interests I have, either be it on a forum or in real life. But I'm well aware not all interests can be group efforts as such.

 

[Ereth]

Have you seen a doctor? Sounds to me like you might be dealing with bipolar disorder. (HUGE disclaimer: I'm not a medical professional and don't pretend to be one. This is just my impression of what's going on.)

I know you said you want to avoid medication, but what about talk therapy? If nothing else, it could help you figure out how to balance your studies with socializing.

 

[WechtleinUns]

Hrm... I was afraid that you were going to say something like that, Ereth, lol. As far as bipolar goes, I won't dismiss a possibility of having a very mild form. At the same time, I know precisely where you're coming from, King Oni. Usually it's an either/or situation for me as well. Although whenever I do switch I end up having to 'find myself' again, as you put it.

Information duly noted, guys. Thanks very much for answering.

 

[Perkinsj88]

I go through this sometimes as well. It really looks like Manic states aka Bi-polar (Technically Manic-Depressive Disorder now), it is extremely exhausting to accomplish so much only to fall into 'remission' in cycle after cycle. As far as dealing with it nothing has ever really helped with it, Adderall actually made this much milder for the first few months of being on it but eventually stopped helping like every other medication doctors have tried me on. The only thing I can really do during 'remission' is exist/survive long enough to crawl out.