Can you be too involved with mental health related stuff?

I feel like my life is being dominated by mental health stuff mostly nowadays or something related to it. I am wondering how to break this habit in a small town where there is not much to do.

When you look at my planner, most of the things are pdoc and tdoc appointments, and other things somehow related to mental health. I also spend almost all the time when it is open at a drop-in center where most of my friends work for local mental health as peer support specialists. I also participate in local events in the community for mental health awareness.

Also I worry if I have the right dx or if there are more that should be added. I am pretty sure there is truth in my current dx of schizoaffective (I'm for sure bipolar at least) and anxiety, but my current and former tdocs and other people say I have Asperger's though pdocs don't think that, I've been also labeled stuff like ADHD and OCD in the past, my last tdoc still thinks I have ADHD and Avoidant Personality Disorder, and I suspect I might have Dependent Personality Disorder.

All and all, I'm obsessing over it and I don't know what else I can do in a community this size, or if this is a bad thing.

I was in your shoes at one time. I walked into my pdoc's office, early in my treatment with him after relocating, and showed him all my mood charts, notes, etc. He said, "I want you to forget about the bipolar for a while". Now, he didn't mean to stop taking my meds and not be mindful of impending mood shifts, but to not have it rule my life. It was an interesting concept for me, but one that really did work. I tried to engage in other things. Hobbies, time with friends (which may be harder for you since they're involved in mental health things). Do you have any non-mental health related hobbies? Can you volunteer at an animal shelter or take up photography or something? Anything to get your mind to focus on something else for a bit. I think you can be too consumed by it, which then actually makes you worse. I'm back on disability now, but I have a few hobbies that I try to focus on when I feel well. I like to cook, do family history work, and take photographs. My kids also keep me busy at times, but even they have mental health issues that I need to focus on. But you can refocus your life.

i think you're right. if we focus too much on what ails us and that's all it's self defeating. if you're limited in social things try reading a good novel, paint-a good form of self expression, gardening, etc. if you have a friend go for lunch and talk about other things, etc.
sometimes i feel we're over dx'ed. labels that may or not be true. explore the dx's and take online quizzes for feedback. it has helped me. i was dx'ed a new one and i challenged, so to speak, my T. in the end she agreed with me. OOOOPS!!! i'd seen T's for 21 years before i saw her. it didn't make sense to me when she suggested the new dx. if she convinced me only then would i be willing to improve on the new disorder. glad i probed her.
for me i rely on my pdoc for the dx.
hope this helps.

I feel the same way sometimes. I look back on past journal entries, for example, and almost all of them are about therapy. I agree that it can become all-consuming, almost feeling like we're stuck in constant self-analysis. I love gardening because it shows that hard work pays off. It's so cool to watch something that you planted from a tiny seed grow to be so big and strong, like sunflowers do. Anyways, hobbies are great for distraction and self-expression, and often we discover talents we didn't even know existed. If you're a reader, there's always that, too, but don't be like me and gear only towards the mental health related material and nothing else

Only you can prevent neurotypical jerkiness!

I am the same all I think about is BP and how it has affected me. I have a calender that has Psych, GP and CPN app's on it and then MH Organisation once a week. I worry about getting worse but never look to getting better. I always focus on the negatives no positives. The pleasure I once had for life has gone I think

Anything one is focused/working on is going to be a priority; if you are working on your mental health, that's great; it's not a whole lot different from someone who has been physically ill and in the hospital working on getting their body back strong and healthy or someone working hard at work or raising a family, enjoying a hobby, etc. It's just what you are working on right now. It's your life and your choice of what will make you "happy" or healthy, what you would like to do with your time and self-resources.

Well, somewhere, I think we need to learn something called, "balance" There are times in life when something is acute i.e a ruptpured appendix, a mental health crisis that we need to put up front and put all our energy into taking care of and healing from. But (and it is a big but here) after a while, the crisis is gone and we need to go back to life with some balance. And sometimes we can make our mental health stuff our lives instead of living life. I think it happens alot. Our mental health stuff is just a part of us-there is so much more to us and life-If we make one-and maybe that is the crux of the issue is what kind of a life do we have? I don't know, just some thoughts and some that certainly does not apply to everyone. But that's my 2 cents.

I'm guilty of doing that too. I've been focusing my reading on bipolar memoirs. But then I try to balance that with time in the kitchen and behind a camera lens.

yes, one can become too involved... one can allow their diagnosis became their identity...

which I think can make everything worse in the end... not everything is a symptom... not everything has something to do with your label. There's more to the life than pdoc appointments. There should be.... otherwise you are not gonna achieve well being.

Glory to heroes!

HATEFREE CULTURE

I have thought of this quite often and have not come up with a reasonable answer for myself....maybe because its some kind of thinking error to begin with, lol. but if i am going to therapy every two weeks and seeing a pdoc every three months, how am i to ever get better? arent i just catering to this illness? im constantly feeding it, giving it attention, putting it in the forefront. it doesnt deserve my attention. it hasnt treated me very well.

Perhaps one can become too involved with a mental illness. But I think it depends on what a person is dealing with in a mental illness. I would hate to label someone with just purposely focusing all thier attention on their own issues. But after coming to PC and even dealing with my own issues, I have a much better understanding of how hard people try to overcome their issues. And what I see is that none of them want this to be their life, even want to give up altogether.

I know myself I would really like to not address my PTSD, but it can be hard to ignore. I seem to gain, wanting to gain and then something happens and I fall and I get angry because of it. And I think if someone tried to explain it to me and I had never experienced it, I would probably suggest various ways of distracting methods.

With PTSD for example it can be accumulative and one may be unaware they have it.
That's what gets me, I was a very productive person and struggled through many terrible things, pushing it away, striving to the next step. But I had no idea that it was somehow accumulating as I went along. Then something major happened and it was the straw that broke the camels back. I literally could not understand how it would all clump together, I couldn't understand that if I had remembered, then why would I suddenly have flashbacks as if I didn't remember. I still don't quite understand to be honest and am trying to understand and learn about it. I surely don't want it to be my life, I pray that it wont.

I think that it is this way for others too. So many people are so confused and get very angry that they can't seem to control what is wrong with them. I think it is pretty sad myself. The overall impression I get from the different people here at PC is that they really want to get on with their lives, they don't want to be tied down to whatever they do deal with. I have seen a lot of courage here, people trying very hard, so I don't think anyone wants it to be their life, at least not from what I see here.

As I have said before PC has been a wonderful source of support for many and I really respect that.

I have heard people in my life make fun of those with BP and other disorders, now, if I am around that kind of person, I don't have any respect for them. People don't
pick these disorders, no one wants to be struck with depression or chronic anxiety disorders.

It is possible that some people use their illness for control or even attention, well, that is probably a disorder in itself. But I really don't see that in PC, at least not that I am aware of, everyone seems to be trying very hard and many are supportive and helpful towards others. I have met better mentally ill people than people outside PC.
More genuine concern and wouldn't it be nice to see more of that outside PC.

Open Eyes

I know this is a few days old, I just saw it now

I find I do best when I am not being "over medicalized" as I call it. This goes for physical health too. If I'm surround by it this monster will eat me up, and I don't like to feed monsters. At least when I am doing good.

Now that I have had some therapy, and when I am doing good or even not so good, I try to work though it on my own. If something big happens mood or huge stressor, then I will call Pdoc or my T. I explained this to my T along time ago, and she respects how I feel. I haven't seen her for 7 months until the other day, because I'm having a mood crisis. She is still great to me and lets me know that I can come in on a need to basis.

This has worked a lot better for me than constant reminders that I'm ill. This is hard when newly diagnosed, but I think after you learn the ropes (educated), do some healing (therapy), have some insight (personal) and feel ready that it's a healthy step in "recovery" for me at least. I never liked the recovery term.

i got plants too. they are so cool..> to nurture them.

The universe started with an 'E'.
The universe will end with a 'K'.
(lyrics Acid House)

Its the truth even if it did not happen.
(Ken Kesey) One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.

I definitely become deeply involved in psychology stuff... I took it in high school and started doing all sorts of research and bought so many books and the course I took last semester at my college I felt like I wasn't learning because I knew more than was being taught, but I can't really get away from mental health stuff since Music Therapy is one of my majors.

I compare everything to psychology, but I try not to have to have a reason for EVERYTHING in the world... though it's difficult.

I definitely feeel sometimes I am too focused on it and use my illness as a crutch or as an excuse to not face certain challenges.

I work on a telephone support line at a psych hospital as a volunteer once a week, and most of the callers have mental health Dx. The vast majority of our callers are so consumed by their illness and wrapped up in it, that they have no life. I think it's all too easy to get wrapped up in a mental health diagnosis and become defined by it. This is something I try to avoid personally. Yeah, most of my volunteer activities are MH related but I enjoy them, and they're about helping people, not about me. I'm also studying music pretty seriously and I've taken up knitting as a hobby. I'm unemployed at the moment which is driving me nuts, but I'm job hunting and hope to be working by Sept.

But it's a balancing act - I have to be conscious of my own needs and self care to keep my MH healthy, which involves meds and therapy and my alcoholism in my remission which involves more treatment. Plus I'm in a CBT group for social anxiety at the moment. Sometimes it feels like my life revolves around therapy, but I know that that's a temporary state.

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