Comments on: Blue Christmas?

By: Ken

Ken — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 01:46:27 +0000

Ray Tyler: SAD occurs twice a year, about May and December (approximately). Spring SAD is not in the public’s mind, because there are no major holidays going on, but statistically it is worse than fall SAD and has a higher suicide rate. While we were having fall SAD in the northern hemisphere, you were having spring SAD in the southern hemisphere, because December is a late spring month for you. Since it was spring SAD, it was really intense.

On sleep. If you are truly depressed, sleeping too much is not only a symptom, it is makes it worse. Staying up all night (say, at a party) can create the illusion that you’ve got it beat, until you crash. Set a regular bedtime and keep it, and get what is for you the normal amount of sleep every night.

For an article like this, it would probably have been a good idea to interview a psychiatrist, who is the best expert you can get on stuff like this. As we see from Ray, these are serious health problems.

By: Ray Tyler

Ray Tyler — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 04:58:11 +0000

Kevin, you have put together a terrific recipe for working your way out of depression, well done. I feel I must comment on Ken’s comment. I have attempted suicide on the day after Christmas on a number of occasions. The significant point here is that I live in New Zealand. Here December is in our summer.

By: Ken

Ken — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:23:08 +0000

Seasonal Affective Disorder is caused by the lack of light. The holidays don’t cause SAD, they just give it an excuse. When my grandmother moved from Pennsylvania to Florida, it cured her SAD. If you can’t move, go to a tanning salon in late fall like my neighbor does. That is enough to eliminate it for him. (You don’t have to see the light, you have to have it on your skin.) Or work on your computer in a bathing suit for a couple hours a day in a small room with very bright halogen lights. Amazing how that improves your mood in the wintertime. Another thing you can do is buy yourself a present in early December, wrap it up, and don’t open it until the end of the year. This is especially effective if you’re like me and you do all of the giving and none of the receiving. My rule is that it can’t be expensive, but it must be something I want but don’t absolutely need. During the time that it sits there, tantalizing me in its wrapping paper, it actually eliminates impulse spending. (That was a side benefit I wasn’t expecting.) When I open the gift, it is so pathetic and so hilarious at the same time that it completely prevents me from feeling sorry for myself. This is how I solve both problems: sadness and feeling left out.