It always baffled me how some people can go through the everyday mundane BS and get a sense of satisfaction from it. They are able to get up in the morning and do what they have to do. It is almost as though it drives them, the same thing over and over. It drives me too. It drives me F - - - - ing crazy. It wears me down. I know a guy that is retired and is all freaked out because he doesn't know what to do with himself during the day. He was in a line of work he really enjoyed and now he is lost. I offered to show him how to retire and do nothing (For a one time fee of course with monthly installments)

I have a friend that tells me that those with depression and or mental illness often get caught up in their diagnosis, which causes them to think that there is no solution and they are stuck forever. However, there are many who believe they can live normal lives, and shake off the label they have been tagged by the mental health professionals.
It is the classic case of black and white thinking. That the symptoms of the illness will one day go away. Having battled alcoholism and addiction, I came to a realization that recovery is one day at a time, a phrase that is often heard in AA. To come to see that being aware is the way to keep us on the beam. There are going to be those days where it feels as though we are being consumed by depression, as well as days where we feel like we are on top of the world. The part that really twists me up is the constant changes in my thoughts. One minute I am happy, then 30 seconds later I am sad or angry. It still is difficult to deal with this rapid change of moods even though I know they need to run their course, but during those “storms”, it is easy for me to lose sight of that. That just might be the point where we get lost, the overwhelming feeling that hijacks our thought process and our mind switches to cruise control and we are heading for a fall. Looking back on my life, I can now see how this has ruined relationships with people in my life, some that are permanently damaged.

Obsessive thoughts can drives us wild, constantly running through our brains on a continuous loop. Some folks keep themselves busy to drive the thoughts away. This might work for them, but my experience has proven that this isn‘t always so. When I get into obsessive thinking, they come and go and the first reaction is to try and make them go away. This might explain why “normal” people get caught up in their work. I sometimes wonder if their over indulgence in work is a way of dodging those uncomfortable feelings that are caused by the thoughts of things they never dealt with. Fears, shame, guilt, and even anger could very well be the culprits. But that is just speculation. Maybe they are just wired that way. Just for kicks and grins, I looked up the word normal in the dictionary: Normal- Conforming to the standard or the common type; usual; not abnormal; regular; natural.
Society has a measuring stick that it uses to sort between the common types versus abnormal. I have always taken what society says with a grain of salt. Human beings are different, and we as a society often lose sight of that.
It is hard to play the hand that we are dealt. There are so many things about me I wish were different. But there are some things that can be changed, and then there are those that cannot be changed. I guess I just need to accept those things in me that I will never change. That isn’t a cop out or negative thinking, that’s just the way it is. In the words of the late great Frank Zappa:

Do you know what you are?
You are what you is
You is what you am
(A cow don't make ham...)
You ain't what you're not
So see what you got
You are what you is
An' that's all it 'tis

Keep the faith