Feeling the need to be busy?

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I've noticed lately that I feel like I NEED to be busy while I'm at school. During lunch I constantly run around talking to people, doing things, meeting with teachers, etc. I can't just sit down and eat with my friends- in fact, I can't sit down at all unless it's with a teacher or in a meeting! I don't just like to be doing as many things as I can, I have to be loading up on things.

The only problem is, I'm starting to really overload myself! I exhaust myself because I never take a break, plus I'm taking on more than I can handle (this past week I started tutoring younger Latin students, ran a fundraiser for Haiti, and went to Model UN conference, among other things). Does anyone else have this problem? I have no idea where it's coming from!


(Additionally, I'm also starting to get really annoyed when I'm NOT in class and learning something. I want to be discussing something interesting or something I've recently learned, or not be part of the conversation at all. I've always hated small talk, but this is something more, I think...)

I am the same way. I am in college now. I am taking five courses, running a college club, and working 20 hours a week. I'm not nearly the busiest at my school, but I do feel that I get depressed if I stop for just a moment.

If you notice my location, I am in DC, which is under lots of snow, and I've been snowed in for days. I'm pretty sad now.

Same here..if I'm not constantly doing something depression sets in... the time i get away from my house is wonderful.

Hey, I'm in DC too! and I'm going absolutely insane.

and yeah, I feel depressed if I stop... And I get really anxious and that "I should be doing something" feeling.

Likewise. I thought I was going to go crazy today... I live on an army base and we got two inches of snow which promted whoever is in charge to shut the entire base down because of two inches of snow! So I'm litterally trapped in my house. If I drive so much as an inch out of my driveway and I can get a ticket (not that there's any place to go, post is closed... so all the stores are closed and all the gates to get on or off post are closed). It's too cold outside for me to work (I work out of my garage which isn't heated)...

I was litterally forced to do nothing all damn day... I could chew iron and spit nails right now.

I have this need a lot of the time.

Hmm, I have I need to do things so I haven't wasted my day, but while doing them I think that I'm wasting time. Ugh, I can never win.

I've always been busy or found some reason to be busy. If not busy, I guess I felt like I was wasting time so I always acted busy.

Well I've never felt like this. Too much social interaction and I feel like a dead duck floating on a lake with a bunch of quacks.

I envy you..

Same. If I'm watching TV I need to be drawing or something at the same time, and worse if I am doing a university assignment I seem to be more motivated by having a packet of Haribo so I can do something with my hands without being totally distracted. It works but its not exactly healthy :/

But I still prefer to be alone, I rarely go out of my way to be social due to boredom, unless ringing my parents for emotional support or help with work.

They're doping the water in DC? Just kidding.

Same here. I seem to have a morbid fear of wasting my time. Can't even do a simple hobby like music without worrying that I haven't got enough "product" out. Even when I'm busy with one thing, I worry that there might be something else that's not getting done. It's difficult to argue against it.......logically, every second I spend away from the task of improving the quality of my life is going to cost me in terms of future happiness. But if I never do anything for its immediate, direct pleasure, then what kind of quality of life is that?

It's not as if I actually work particularly hard and long.......overall my work-life balance is probably close to the ideal, and I can be inactive for hours when I'm not in the mood for work, but mostly I'm completely incapable of enjoying it as leisure.

I might not mind so much if I agreed with the Protestant work ethic, but I despise that stuff, and feel that it's just a trick to screw more work out of ordinary people in order to keep the elite happy (and don't they fall for it in droves? ). I'm hoping that my condition is mostly the result of having too much to do with greedy employers, and that once I escape from the world of waged labour, I'll re-humanise and my outlook will become a lot more relaxed and healthy. Assuming I'm not too set in my ways by then.

Same here ... as if my mind might over-rev and "throw a rod" or something if it were not constrained by having something at hand to be done. One thing I find interesting, however, is my ability to relax a bit while installing an operating system ... but even then I am still busy while "watching" what is going on inside the machine just in case I need to jump back into action.

I am the same, in fact I 'set up' things for myself to do through the day as I have to have a schedule to follow, most days are the same unless something happens out of the ordinary like a visitor comes to the house or I get a phone call then I have to change my plans.

I get tired if I am not doing anything.

I know the feeling of needing to be busy very well. I don't see it as a problem.

When I am focussed, needing to be busy helps me to get things done and I am now SLOWLY learning to enjoy some 'down-time'.


About the only time I really do nothing is when I am too tired to do or think anything, typically when I am sleep deprived OR if I have spent too long in the gym or cycling.

I then just veg' in an arm chair looking catatonic.