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Monday, January 31, 2011

It’s SAD, just SAD! - 31 Jan 11

As the Middle East continues to erupt in bullets, flames and mobs of thugs roam the streets proving that the world in some areas is still just as backwards as it always has been; we sit in our homes and have a new disorder to consume our worry.

You may have never heard of it. I hadn’t until this very morning – it’s SAD. Yah, that’s right; it’s SAD. That’s SAD as in Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). I thought it was bad (sad) enough when we just had to worry about cabin fever. Now I find that I can develop a disorder called SAD. I was feeling pretty good up until I heard this on the CBS Early Show. Shoot! They even described what it was, how it effected me and what I could do about it.

The first symptom to watch out for is worry. What, me worry? I don’t worry. There’s far too many others worrying for me to have to take up that mantra. I’ll just leave it to them. So I’ll just move on; looks like I may be able to dodge this after all.

Then they hit me right where I live. Sleep! Come to find out a guy just might be getting too much sleep. I had been working toward the other direction – trying to get more. Now I learn I might need to cut back. Probably will have to stop taking that mid-morning and mid-afternoon nap. I may even have to go back to watching the 10 o’clock news to counteract the early to bed–Franklinism I had been working on. Whoa, getting too much sleep; what’ll they get me for next?

Oh yah, that’s it. They never think I’m getting enough exercise. They always come after you on that exercise gambit; don’t they? I always said: “Never trust anybody named They!” Well, what am I gonna do to get more exercise. I guess I’ll have to fill in some of that sleep time I giving back with some sort of exercise; but what’ll it be? I’m already going on what amounts to a forced march with Little Gus and Little Otis every morning. Those two try to walk me to death every morning of the world. Maybe I’ll take up some of that stationary exercising, it’ll probably help. Of course there’s always those forms of mental exercising; I’m gonna be awake anyway – might as well keep the ole mind in gear.

Finally the gal on the Early Show said that if one has a routine that it would be best to break it up. My routine was pretty full as it was. I moved straight from the bed first thing in the morning to the breakfast table where I consumed a hearty bowl of raisin bran with blue berries and 2% milk. Next I get the wife off to her work; don’t want her to arrive late and get her pay docked. I move quickly to the couch, turn on the Early Show and read the entire newspaper. Before I know it, both pups are nagging me to start that forced march I mentioned earlier.

I get those guys around the block, give them a biscuit, put them into PupLand and go to check my email. Ya gotta keep up with what’s going on around you. Just as soon as email has been handled, I am off to that mid-morning nap. Just as soon as the noon whistle goes off, I am after that bologna and cheese sandwich – man, a full morning. The afternoon is somewhat a repeat of the morning.

So now I am fairly confused. If I substitute some mind exercise for the naps; am I not in just about the same routine I was in before I started getting well (or un-SAD)? How have I helped my situation?

I decided to put some effort into checking further into what I could do. I went to the net. There’s gotta be some good advice out there. As I start with a yahoo homepage, that’s where I began – yahoo health (http://health.yahoo.net/channel/seasonal-affective-disorder-sad.html). I wasn’t sure they helped at all. I sure don’t feel lethargic. I can get me a fresh glass of iced tea at the drop of a hat; just don’t ask me to bend over and retrieve that hat. I don’t feel any social withdrawal; in fact I could use just a slight cutback in my social life. I had already planned on doing just that and increasing my sleep schedule – now I have to chunk that idea.

Wikipedia was my next stop (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_affective_disorder). These guys tried to feed me the line that this disorder comes with the change of seasons – what a bunch of bull. If I got it, I got it all year round. I’m not falling for this change of seasons malarkey. This site did mention some (maybe) worthwhile treatments that yahoo hadn’t brought up. I’m gonna look into light therapy, cognitive-behavior therapy and something called ionized-air administration – that’s gotta be good for ya. I’m pretty sure that I’m gonna stay far away from that “carefully timed supplementation of the hormone melatonin” – that just doesn’t sound like me at all.

Just to be sure I hadn’t stumbled on a bunch of quacks on the first two sites, I found another, more classy site – the Mayo Clinic (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/seasonal-affective-disorder/DS00195). These guys gave me a definition and sent me on my way.

I think I’ll stay with my current self-diagnosis and just try to get me some more sleep and hope the seasons get their act together.

2 comments:

  1. It's a simple vitamin D disorder. If you don't get enough sun in the winter, or summer, take extra vitamin D.

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  2. Thanks for the advice Nikki, I'll look into that. Wonder what Wikipedia has to say about that?

    ReplyDelete