You're describing a brain problem. It might be caused by poor diet, sleep, life perspective, etc. But whatever the cause, it's a problem in your brain; and it's probably fixable with drugs.
If you feel you have an ADHD problem (which is what it sounds like), there's a variety of pills that can correct your symptoms. This quiz is fairly accurate in terms of diagnosis (really, self-answered questions are one of the few indicators available to psychs for ADHD): http://psychcentral.com/addquiz.htm
If you think you're too stressed, there's pills for that too.
I've also read that marijuana is helpful (counter-intuitive as it may seem) for reducing both ADHD and anxiety symptoms; so depending on your local laws, you might want to consider that.
My point is that lifestyle improvements are good, and I'd certainly advocate them, but don't rule out the possibility of using chemicals to your advantage. It's 2010 and we have that technology now.
No diagnosis here, it's just what it sounds like to me. I'd encourage the OP to go see a doctor and consider medication. But it seems silly to me to rule out drugs at all, given how much effort has been put into researching and applying them.
I think this is a very bad advise. Don't use drugs EVER.
Drugs never fix problems. The only hide them. if your body is telling you something, you should fix the root of the problem, not remove the symptoms.
Whatever a drug does(stimulant, depressant...)the body will balance it giving the opposite effect over time(the roller coaster effect).This means instability of everything from mood to chemicals on your blood. Not to mention the body getting used to it, needing each time more and more to cause the same effect and getting addicted.
I think this is a very bad advise. Drugs can sometimes be good.
For the last 3 years (since a long relationship ended) I was in a bad funk, getting very little done and having a baseline that was a bit depressed, with occasional moments of manic happiness/productiveness.
A few months ago, a new friend told me that I just had to try mushrooms. It was a spiritual, life-changing event. I have since done them 3 more times, and LSD once.
Good drugs (and I guess I basically mean psychedelics when I say that) can teach you a different way of thinking, one which you continue long after your use of the drugs. My life is orders of magnitude better than it was six months ago. I'm enjoying the little things, and figuring out how what I'm doing fits into the big picture of how I'd like to live my life.
I really cannot get onboard with the advice to not use drugs "EVER". Even from an anti-drug standpoint, it's very hard to argue against using pain-killing drugs for the week following a surgery. Drugs have their purposes, and as long as you don't let them take over your life, they can be quite positive.
People have been telling me I just have to try alcohol or drugs or smoking for about as long as I can remember, and in spite of the fact that it really seems to be life-changing for them I'm fairly happy with the one I've got and I'd hate to trade with those that are advising me like that.
Pain killing versus drugs in the street sense of the word is a bad comparison, 'drugs' are a tool to be used when needed and appropriate, self medication of hallucinogens or depressants can cause all kinds of problems down the road, especially if your personality is not too disciplined.
Indeed, drugs have their purpose, and to tell a person whose life circumstances are otherwise unknown to start using them is in general as bad an advise as you could possibly give.
Drugs fall into different categories regarding the reason why people use them as well as their effect. Here are some commonly appearing taxons:
(1) Drugs which are used to control a certain set of behavior or cultivate a certain desirable state of mind (caffeine, nicotine).
- This group can be addictive not only because of the psychoactive properties of the drug but because the necessary state of mind for some necessary activity (i.e. certain forms of work) is amplified or facilitated by the drug
(2) Drugs which are used to open the mind to various forms of sensation that the mind is not normally able to perceive and/or process.
-- Here we are on difficult epistemological ground because, although various religions and practioners attest various common experiences as the result of ingesting various substances (e.g. the merging of consciousness and "mind reading" via peyote) there is little collaborating scientific evidence, in my mind indicating the 'epimaterial' properties of the experience.
(3) Drugs which are used to induce "good feelings"
-- this category is esp. prone to serious forms of addiction including absorption in the state of mind cultivated by the drug.
With these categories in mind (albeit suggestive and not definite) can one categorically dismiss drugs? My own answer is no, at the moment I make fairly extensive use of (1) and at various points have branched into (2). That said, I view (1) as undesirable since you are developing dependencies and, ideally, stimulants should be replaced with self-cultivation of the appropriate state of mind. The extent to which this is possible I am not sure, but I recognize that at various points in my life I have been much more productive than I am currently without the use of (1).
As for (2) the substances can also be extraordinarily dangerous and in many related religious traditions practice with a more experienced person (usually a shaman of some sort) is mandated because of the potentially live changing nature of the experience (negative or positive, see the Datura stories on Erowid for a poignant example, most of them prompted by Castneda's highlight of Dature in his Don Juan chronicles).
So, as with most other areas of life, the answer is not yes or no, but know yourself and know exactly what you are dealing with.
You're describing a brain problem. It might be caused by poor diet, sleep, life perspective, etc. But whatever the cause, it's a problem in your brain; and it's probably fixable with drugs.
If you feel you have an ADHD problem (which is what it sounds like), there's a variety of pills that can correct your symptoms. This quiz is fairly accurate in terms of diagnosis (really, self-answered questions are one of the few indicators available to psychs for ADHD): http://psychcentral.com/addquiz.htm
If you think you're too stressed, there's pills for that too.
I've also read that marijuana is helpful (counter-intuitive as it may seem) for reducing both ADHD and anxiety symptoms; so depending on your local laws, you might want to consider that.
My point is that lifestyle improvements are good, and I'd certainly advocate them, but don't rule out the possibility of using chemicals to your advantage. It's 2010 and we have that technology now.