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27th June, 2012
A WHILE ago it was reported that a polar bear residing in New York Manhattan Centre Park was brought to see a psychiatrist, after it was discovered to be suffering from extreme hyperactivity.
It had taken to swimming in its enclave pool 24-7 without intervals for some long months.
After the lengthy expert treatment, it was finally brought back to a more normal life. The swimming was reduced to a more acceptable rate; once or twice a day.
Not much of a story that, we might think.
But like never before that bear’s state of health had stirred up much public interest from various quarters.
For at least, the polar bear itself had become a star overnight because of the unusual attention. Not only had its images been used widely in commercial products and picture books, one of the greeting, get-well cards or postcards also showed the bear checking in with the doctor.
Pictures of the bear and the doctor on the popular cards, depicting the bear lying on the couch at sick bay, answering questions, just like ordinary people obliging the analyst firing away.
And so an important conclusion was arrived at; whenever we humans or any other animals should engage in the same activity repetitively over a long period, it is a huge psychological problem. What has been termed as the familiar compulsive obsessive behaviour.
Non-stop swimming, jogging, walking, eating, dieting, earning money, talking, lying, working, cleaning, escaping, fishing for compliments from others, scolding other people, squinting the eyes, screwing up eyebrows, sticking out the tongue or the non-stop searching for men or women, looking for people to love oneself or the other way round; in a habit of dumping have- been lovers or the non-stop falling in love.
All these behaviour are not normal. They are illness.
To continuously fall in love, fall out of love or jilt the people one has loved before; either way is the same as the polar bear which had not been able to stop swimming. At the end it would tire itself out and die.
Non-stop actions or activities would inevitably kill us.
The bear might not understand that it was sick. But the experts knew.
People who continuously fall in love or people who break up their love relationships non- stop do not realize that they are suffering from a serious illness.
They might laugh at those who can’t stop eating or they simply loath those who talk incessantly.
What they do not realize is that they are in the same category as them, when they can’t help themselves to fall in love or out of love.
They are all sick. Even though their illnesses or symptoms may differ, they are all considered patients under the same category.
However, there is a non-stop human activity which is not considered an illness. Our non-stop breathing.
Like breathing, people work non-stop.
And even though much has also been written about the workaholics or we have either complained or criticized wildly about the rat race, it hasn’t stopped.
We still go on working and working and working. That is certainly something very tiring but it seems that we can’t stop and we don’t want to stop.
Sometimes I become suspicious about whether lazy people are wiser for at least they know the non-stop living day to day is also an illness.
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