Procrastination and Mental Health...Oops!

18 years ago

Recently I have been Procrastinating, so I decided to look up what causes Procrastination. Winter months are tough on me, I'm a Sunshine person...I must have light. I could never live in Alaska.

So, this is what I found:

Procrastination and mental health

Procrastination can be a persistent and debilitating disorder in some people, causing significant psychological disability and dysfunction. These individuals may actually be suffering from an underlying mental health problem such as depression or ADHD.

While procrastination is a behavioral condition, these underlying mental health disorders can be treated with medication and/or therapy. Therapy can be a useful tool in helping an individual learn new behaviors, overcome fears and anxieties, and achieve an improved quality of life. Thus it is important for people who chronically struggle with debilitating procrastination to see a trained therapist or psychiatrist to see if an underlying mental health issue may be present.

Severe procrastination and/or ADD can cross over into internet addiction or computer addiction. In this instance the individual has a compulsion to avoid reality by surfing the web or playing video games (see Game addiction) or looking at online pornography (see Pornography addiction). Although these are relatively new phenomena, they are being considered as psychiatric diagnoses by mental health professionals.

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Comments (8)

luckygardnr
18 years ago
We're all in trouble now!
foggyj
18 years ago
I'd better look for a therapist then.
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User
18 years ago
Ah shucks, and I just settled down with my coffee....now I just have to get off my arse and work on last weeks list!
Thanks, just what I needed right now!

She thinks about getting up....
Happy_Go_Lucky_Gayle
Original Author
18 years ago
Main Man's 21 year old Son lives with his Mother. He has had one job that lasted 3 months. His Mother works and He plays on the computer all day. It is the most pathetic existence I've ever seen in a young Man. The Mother has talked Main Man into buying him a Nissan Z Car to encourage him to go to work to pay for the insurance.

Three years later... guess who is paying the car note and insurance. Main Man. I could kick his rear, even though it isn't any of my business. I dare not bring up the subject.

I told him I'll never discuss it again but gave him my opinion. "This is the worst case of child abuse I've ever seen, you have allowed him to be a cripple."

I don't speak about it anymore, but I pray my heart out that this 21 year old will wake up. Or that His parents will get him help.

Gayle
stephanie_in_ga
18 years ago
I have always been awful about procrastinating certain tasks. The ones I dont want to do! LOL! I find too many other things to do. One day this week I wasn't working and should have spent the day doing household chores while I had the house to myself all day, DH at work, kids at school. Instead I spent 6 hours reading a book. I don't know how the hours went by so quickly, one at a time. It felt good and bad. Good to be able to indulge myself like that for a day. Bad for all the others things that still needed done, and I now had no time left to do them. Pathetic. That was like the article said, a desire to be distracted from reality! Just couldn't pull myself away from that book. I justify it b/c reading is a worthwhile pasttime, right? I wasn't playing computer games, or at the mall shopping and spending tons of money (it was even a library book).

I've been a procrastinator off and on my whole life. After kid #3 I really started to think I have developed PCADD (Post Children ADD). LOL. I never felt this way before kids, the constant feeling of "Now, what was I doing?" But now, well, years of sleep deprivation followed by the chaos that kids bring to daily life, and my brain is fried. It just doesn't work as well as it used to. So now my procrastination seems to come from an inability to focus on what needs to be done without being distracted by something else that needs to be done.
Happy_Go_Lucky_Gayle
Original Author
18 years ago
Right now, I need to do Laundry, visit my Mom and Vacuum and possibly go to the store.

I haven't even been in the shower yet. I keep peddling around.

If I don't get off my duff the roof is going to cave in.

Ok 5 more minutes, one cigarette and I'll get to it.

Gayle
marilyn_c
18 years ago
I am sure I have ADD. I'm not hyperactive, but I have a hard time staying hitched. For example, I have a hard time watching tv or a movie. Most do not hold my interest. I work
all day long, but when I start to do something...I will see something else that needs to be done. And I will go off and do that, and then something else...in other words, a lick and a promise but seldom can I see any big results because I won't stay with one thing long enough to see it through. I can work all day and at the end of the day, you can't tell I have done anything.

I do well working off of a list, but I will never do it. I damned sure am not going to go on meds or to a therapist. I don't have time to sit on my butt with a stranger telling me what to do.

But, a few days ago, I made a list. My first day, had 29 things on the list, and I finished 20. Added to it the next day, and finished more. I was gone all day yesterday, so didn't get much done on it, but started back on it this morning.

The first order of the day is to finish the list from the first day. I only have 3 more things to do to finish it.
And they are piss ant jobs. Little things, but things I just will put off and put off.

The list has 53 things on it now and I have finished 35 of them, and a couple of them were big jobs. Being obcessive/compulsive, I have been using it to my advantage now and enjoy working on the list. A lot of the jobs were things I just didn't want to do...altho I could have finished them easily enough. Seeing my progress now...I am inspired. Hope I can keep the list going. It's my only hope. :(
junkyardgirl
18 years ago
Well, I should see a therapist, but I'll wait until tomorrow.

Seriously, I'm the world's worst procrastinator, and getting worse all the time. I'd put off breathing if it was possible!

Procrastination and Mental Health...Oops!

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luckygardnr

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Procrastination and Mental Health...Oops!

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