I should state upfront that I am really excited for the new kitchen. It's going to be great. I've worked hard putting it all together, and it's not going to take that long to do -- just a couple of weeks or so, then I'll have a beautiful new kitchen to enjoy.
However...there's something about my routine being disrupted that causes me to totally crash. I've gone through two bathroom remodels and various other smaller projects, and it's always the same -- it get irritable, depressed, and anxious. I can't cook anything, I can't really wash dishes, it's hard to get to my refrigerator (at least I still have one, though), and all the contents of my kitchen are strewn around my living room and dining room. I found my two-year-old trying to eat a beef bullion cube she found yesterday because she assumed if it was in a shiny wrapper, it was candy. She was disabused of that notion pretty quickly.
Out of curiosity, I did a little web searching on bipolar disorder and routine, and found quite a few articles that talk about how people with bipolar disorder may be helped by regular routines. I'm not surprised, because a disruption to my routine certainly wreaks havoc with my mood, so it would stand to reason that the opposite is true. Here are the articles:
From webmd.com: Daily Routine May Help Bipolar Disorder
From the American Journal of Psychiatry: The Importance of Routine for Preventing Recurrence in Bipolar Disorder
From healthyplace.com: Stability in Bipolar Disorder Requires Routine
At least I feel a little justified that I'm not just making up an excuse for my bad mood. Here's hoping the reno goes quickly.
