[WendyAussie]

I posted the other day about fears around staring an upcoming course. Things are getting progressively better as more things are slotting into place in terms of the 3 day, 5-9 on-campus stint I will be doing in another town 3 hours away, including enrollment (which I starting trying to get in order in December!!), accommodation, my needs around several disabilities and the general shambles every area of the Uni relating to all those things.

So now I'm getting excited, and of course ramping up. The course is on Sustainability and I read a book on the history of the Environmental Movement to prepare myself and have some background to set me up for the course. And I have done heaps of research on the Net. I had my psychologist laughing like crazy as we agreed I'm probably the only student to be **** enough to prepare for the course by doing something that' not even required. It's so Bipolar.

And then I was in overdrive and wanted to read Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, 1962, which started the whole modern environmental movement. And again, I wanted to read it all (very compex book) by next week for the start of the course - also not required for the start of the course, although it will be one of the reference texts. I didn't read the book but I have read study notes off the Net and again, I had my psychologist in fits of laughter. She always accuses me of being a perfectionist, which I doubt, but maybe she's right. With this Bipolar and probably others, it's so oftern all or nothing - no middle ground. She and I actually agreed that it was progress for me to stop myself from reading the whole of Silent Spring in such a short time, to moderate my behaviour and only read the study guide - and thus not burn myself out before I even get there!

And we have an ongoing laugh about how I have everything, all my paperwork in plastic files with velcro, with the subject (financials, medical, lease, whatever) in marker pen on the outside. Then I can swing to not doing a particular thing in the house and procrastinate. Does anyone relate?

[Skully]

I can relate for sure LOL. I have everything organized but do nothing with it. I have adhd and cannot take the medications to treat it because of the bipolar. So, I am good at organizing but bad and doing anything with it lol.

Hehe, yeah, WendyAussie, can relate. Even just today in fact. Looking for an apartment about 4 hours away. Spent the whole day going through the (already marked) paper, making little notecards so they're all in the same format, going online and looking for more yet. Looking at the Google maps for locations, checking reviews of managment companies, apartment buildings, ranking cards, paperclipping etc etc etc. And this is nothing. Boyfriend is like this: (and this is totally WITHOUT hypomania...in fact I've been a bit depressed lately) He hasn't seen me REALLY in action, lol. In planning a 3 week trip to Ireland, I was probably at it for 2 months. Bus schedules, lodgings, things to see, and it wasn't enough to just come up with something that worked. Would check out many many options till my head spun trying to work out the "ideal" combination. in my defence, I *was* extremely efficient once I was actually there though. Add to that being on planes and being up for easily a day and half straight and I was off to the races alright... Hypomanic much?
Then again, I can get NOTHING AT ALL done for long stretches.
All or nothing. Yup, that's it in a nutshell...

[Anneinside]

I like organization... and I have it underneath the mess. My DVDs and books are alphabetized, clothes are sorted by type, picture file sorted by relationships... but there is a pile of stuff on my ironing board that I haven't straightened out in months... and more.

[WendyAussie]

Innerzone, I am crying with laughter reading your post. At the same time as planning this study trip and the whole course, I am waiting for some big financial decisions (Total and Permanent Disability Claims) with will influence whether I can buy a small home. I am planning my move to another town two and a half hours away and I have researched everything within an inch of it's life. All the relevent Favourites are all organised in their relevant folders on my Internet Browser, I have a hard copy file to match, I search and research about relevent properties and everything I can think of about this town.

And for my trip next week I have a harcopy file all done with all the maps printed out from the Net, all the accommodation material, the course material, it goes on and on and on.

But I think kept in a managemable framewrok like you said, it is really helpful for me to do these things in advance for when my ineviable plunges into depression and the profound lack of function that follows. I don't have a single soul in my daily life to help me with this stuff, so I DO need to be super organised. What you said about you boyfriend and his response to it made me laugh out loud too. You see, the only people who know how I operate like this are you guys on mental illness support sites and my psychologist and psychiatrist. I think I'd scare a guy off!! "Normies" have the luxury of "going with the flow" and not having to plan so much in advance. In corporate lingo, it's a "risk management strategy".