How SAD it is

Building Detail, Tuscon, AZ April 2005.

Living in Seattle, we're deluged with news reports every fall and winter about Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). I like this definition as it sort of sums it up for me

(SAD) a cyclically recurring mood disorder characterized by depression, extreme lethargy, increased need for sleep, hyperphagia, and carbohydrate craving; it intensifies in one or more specific seasons, most commonly the winter months, and is hypothesized to be related to melatonin levels. In DSM-IV terminology called mood disorder with seasonal pattern.
from
www.mercksource.com/pp/us/cns/cns_hl_dorlands.
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They say that you can help alleviate the symptoms with exposure to light - be it a light box or going outside in the daylight, which makes alot of sense to me, but not always practical. There are lots of ideas on combatting it here and goodness, the UK cares enough to map it. Check it out.

TH and I were talking today and realized that one reason we do okay (relatively) this time of year is that we spend so much time above the clouds while flying. Being up in the light helps us both. I revel in this when I fly across the country and rail against people who try and get me to put the shades down so that they can watch some stupid episode of everyone loves raymond.

I tried to get out today and it didn't work, I'm going to try for the next few weeks and hopefully, it'll put the pep back into my step that seems to be lacking.