Me thinks "boredom" is a cover for something else...the last few days my need to escape this feeling has grown like a green monster...i've been more compulsive online tyring to avoid "boredom" today its even stronger...I dunn maybe its frustration? rage? I feel irritable...feel I just want to kick the TV in....just want to escape my skin....feel I need to "use" a chemical of some sort today just to ease the irritibity/boredom inside of me...GGrrrrrggrr and another gggggrrr for good measure.

hey there. yeah... i've heard it said that boredom / emptiness / irritability / lonliness / feeling disconnected can be related...

maybe?

exercise? sometimes i think that part of my problem with that feeling is that my body is trying to tell me that i need to exercise. need some of those natural opiates. need to stretch my limbs and tire my muscles. after exercise... one typically feels pretty good (though i hate exercising mostly). some stretching... some jumping around (aka 'dancing') something like that... go for a run or a bike ride if you are very keen or even a walk... but yeah if it is a chemical you need it is probably your endorphins... yup yup yup.

(there is some evidence that meaningfully connected moments... that social approval releases some of those same endorphins - i think the same but don't quote me on that. that that is what reinforces social interaction. chocolate has some of that... but exercise and / or positive social interaction could quite honestly could be what your body is looking for)

on a related note i'm not sure if those same chemicals are released with positive online encounters... not sure... interesting experiment there for someone who is into that... perhaps ;-)

[Perna]

I've been awake since around 4:00 a.m. and finally got up (but went to bed at 9:00-9:30 so around 7 hours sleep). I'm in the middle of writing a school paper I'm not in the mood to write. I wake in the morning with "Oh! My paper, I have to write two more pages today!" but that quickly moves into disappointment and resistance. I hate the flip flop between thinking there's something to do and finding, "Oh, it's that." I feel cheated.

When I have trouble getting out of a mood, I remember my T teaching me that feelings and moods are like weather and come and go. Eventually the boredom will be replaced with something else, eventually my paper will be finished (by Sunday :-) I did learn near the end of therapy to "sit with" whatever I was feeling instead of resisting it and that seemed to make it easier to bear, got it moving on a little faster?

Sometimes I get pedantic and do something like study "boredom" when I'm bored :-) Do you know there's now a "boredom proneness scale?" http://uwf.edu/svodanov/boredom/bps.htm

Perna, yes your describe boredom well. I keep thinking there's something I need to do and when I realise its just "live" I think "oh is that it" :-(

wow Perna, are you reading my mind? i'm trying to write a paper right now too. only... here i am procrastinating... i've got under a week to do it methinks... eep... time to get my skates on. if anybody sees me posting they really should slap my wrist... but you describe the flip flop of resistence and disappointment and motivation quite well. when i'm actually working i feel great and i really do love what i do. getting to that point... is such a struggle, however. such a struggle...

[Perna]

This paper is my "last" as I graduate in three weeks :-) I was going to do more grad school but I'm tired and think I've had my fill of paper writing. I can't get interested in this paper no matter what I do and it's showing; the writing is good but any thesis that exists isn't going anywhere :-)

I made a "schedule" for myself (I have my final exam in a couple weeks and I've done none of the reading for the course either all semester so have to "cram") and that seriously makes me unhappy, I hate being lock-stepped and fear I'll fight that halter even worse than the paper writing one.

Maybe "boredom" is a safe thing to rail against? It's the proverbial, fight-one's-way-out-of-a-wet-paperbag; what does it hurt? If I weren't fighting boredom, I think I'd be taking my lack of concentration/studying out on myself in more harmful ways?

Moderob, mo-der-ob (boredom backwards :-) Almost sounds like an engine sound. I think I'll moderob my way into writing my two pages.

[DePressMe]

Hey mouse…not saying this is you, it is my experience…when I am bored I am generally not doing something I should be doing—I ignore basic responsibilities like house cleaning, laundry, yard, staying in touch with friends…Also, I find I am neglecting part of my therapy—I’ll do anything to keep from finding out what the real issues is and work through it. I try to force myself to journal and to get the basics done—motivate myself to just move forward. Oh, how I hate to do it.