Keeping busy

[Nenos]

Throughout therapy and even AA meetings all I hear about is people "keeping busy" -- staying distracted from the SI. Is that all there is though? Is it really a good viewpoint? The way I view it: work, family, friends, hobbies, it's all a distraction until I die.

I mean it yeah "works." Tomorrow I got shit to do. I have rent to pay. People to keep up with. Things I can't leave behind. Can't go just yet. Too busy.

But the idea that it's all to keep me distracted really takes away the meaning of it all. I'm stuggling to find hobbies or connect with people having this in the back of my mind. I'm not any happier or doing any better, I'm just "busy" now. Is that what "keeping busy" means or is something supposed to come out of it?

I've been holding onto what I thought was teenage angst for nearly two decades now, I don't know what to do. Now that I'm keeping busy, therapy feels like weekly checkins and congratulations. Yet I'm still dead set on ending my own life, and I can't say that to anyone.

 

[Dnz4ever]

Throughout therapy and even AA meetings all I hear about is people "keeping busy" -- staying distracted from the SI. Is that all there is though? Is it really a good viewpoint? The way I view it: work, family, friends, hobbies, it's all a distraction until I die.

I mean it yeah "works." Tomorrow I got shit to do. I have rent to pay. People to keep up with. Things I can't leave behind. Can't go just yet. Too busy.

But the idea that it's all to keep me distracted really takes away the meaning of it all. I'm stuggling to find hobbies or connect with people having this in the back of my mind. I'm not any happier or doing any better, I'm just "busy" now. Is that what "keeping busy" means or is something supposed to come out of it?

Honestly...when people say "staying busy"- it's exactly to your point, at least for me when I say it.

There is no other meaning for them...they're just trying to stay so busy they cant act on an impulse.

It's not to do better, or be happier....its just to keep from getting worse. Stabilization is the goal with that coping mechanism...not improvement.

The old cliche "idle hands are the devils plaything" comes to mind.

 

[Oh so tired]

I totally agree, I'm frequently advised by MH professionals to keep myself busy, do something to 'distract' myself, especially in the evenings when my suicidal thoughts are the worst, but this doesn't take those feelings away it's just a temporary cover up, when I stop being 'busy' it all comes flooding back. I am naturally a busy person, I have a young family, but I think that this has actually made things worse for me as I'm not giving myself time to stop and feel my feelings and address them.

 

[PrettyMoose]

It is all about distractions to keep people from contemplating the futility of life. People roll the boulder up the hill like Sisyphus and convince themselves that this is a worthwhile task. It's just so that they won't have to sit at the bottom of the hill overcome with the pointlessness of everything. It is a sad state of affairs but that's really all there is to do in this existence, distract oneself until death.

 

[darkhorse256]

Keeping busy doesn't even help me anymore. My trauma keeps seeping into all areas of my life and I feel like keeping busy makes my trauma worse.,