05 February 2011

Whirling Dervish

I am being driven insane lately by my very own brain.  Admittedly, my brain has always had more energy than my body, but recently it's completely out of control.  It feels as if thoughts, ideas, and words are swirling around all of the time, not necessarily in any order, or for any specific reason.

What book will I read next?  What should I knit?  Should I start something new, or work on the many things underway?  Maybe I should give myself a manicure.  Oh I know, I'll write a letter!  There's a movie I really want to watch.  If I fixed some things ahead of time, I'd have some dinners for the week prepared.  Don't forget to bake gingerbread muffins soon.  Wow there's a lot of laundry!  I love tea.  Should I pay bills now or later?  I need a pair of brown shoes.  Will Zach like his birthday presents?  I wonder what I'll do now that I will need to find a new place to get my hair cut.

You get the idea.  Take those things, speed them up approximately 200%, add in about 50 more things per minute, and welcome to my brain.  OK, it's good to have an active mind.  But when my mind is this active, I am nearly paralyzed - I don't know what to do, can't concentrate very well, and as a result, accomplish very little.

Fortunately, this doesn't happen for any extended period of time very often.  I wonder if it happens to other people very often, if at all. 

Hopefully, my brain will return to its usual organized and often fixated self soon.  In the meantime, I wouldn't mind running out of things to think about ...

14 comments:

Susan aka paintermom said...

My head is like this all the time. I finally began taking meds a few years back to shut it up at night so I could fall asleep.

I find that lists help. Once I make a "brain dump" onto paper, I can take a step back and decide which things to do and in what order.

Hope it passes soon.

sprite said...

It happens to me, too.

SissySees said...

It happens here too. Only it goes like this:

I should be going through those two boxes. I should be emptyting the dishwasher. I should be ... hey! Will it get warm enough to take the dogs for a walk today? Oh, but where is Sissy's gentle walker harness? ...

Lorraine said...

Bridget- I think dumb people have an easier life.

Anonymous said...

Welcome to MY mind. There's a reason I'm on Prozac -- the agitation is just too much. It is such a common phenomena that the Buddhists call it "monkey mind" and recommend meditation, which actually DOES work.

Hope things calm down for you soon.

Kitty said...

You example of an overactive brain cracked me up- I feel that way all the time! I'll lay down to go to bed at night, and I try to make a list of things that actually got done. The list is short, and that frustrates me!

Hope your brain goes back to normal soon!

Quilting Mama said...

This shows up too often and when it does almost nothing gets accomplished. Time for brain drain on to paper and then a bubble bath after the kids are at school.

Hope a round of quiet helps you to refocus and return to your slower speed brain activity.

Mr Puffy's Knitting Blog: said...

My thoughts become scattered either when I don't get sufficient sleep or if something stressful occurs in my life. Try and slow yourself down with long soothing baths and go to bed early. Let go of everything on your list as nothing is important except to bake gingerbread muffins :) Hope you feel back to yourself soon ~

Brigitte said...

Ooo, gingerbread muffins...

Marie said...

I agree with Susan: make a list. You'll get the important things done and the rest will just wait. Putting stuff down on paper seems to quiet the mind for a while.

Carrie#K said...

That sounds pretty much the way my brain works but I'm usually also constructing doomsday scenarios as they (possibly) come up.

erin said...

you totally just described me!

mary said...

Mostly this happens to me when I'm wide awake in the middle of the night.

Bookfool said...

I've been going from mildly to seriously depressed for the last dozen years and it slows your brain down nicely, although I do sometimes have that problem when I really need to be sleeping!!