OT: Seasonal Affective Disorder

And a specific set are definitely afflicted with SFB

You mean made up bullshit to sell special lights for extreme amounts of money?

not buying it.

Never heard of Sensory Input Deprivation? Similar reaction.

it being a little colder outside is now sensory deprivation?

do you invent diseases too?

Known for many years in Northern Canada and presumably in Alaska as Cabin Fever. The legend goes that the Hospital in Whitehorse, Yukon had a ward set aside every Feb-Mar for those who succumbed.

The most extreme case I heard of was of two very good friends in Yukon who had built a log home together and who shared everything. Then Cabin Fever struck and EVERYTHING was split down the middle to the extent that they even had separate sides of the wood stove to cook on and one man had to build a door in HIS side of the cabin as he would not deign to leave by the other man's door.

Of course there were always the men who killed their wives as they were so annoying and the wives who killed their husbands because they were so damn intransigent.

Mike in BC, who witnessed a mild case one year when I insisted on keeping the door of a shared storage shed closed to keep out the local dogs. The other sharer of said shed, so enraged he couldn't speak, smashed every pane of glass in the four windows of the shed.

How does any of this tie to seaons again?

It sounds like you lived a bit of what Jack London wrote about in "In a Far Country." When I used to fish up on Great Slave I'd think about that story, and imagine what it must be like on the shores of that lake in the winter. Bleak and black.

It's a good short Jack London story, if you haven't read it:

-- Ed Huntress

I take it that you don't know what SID is.

Heat, Cold, Stun Gun = stimuli Just like light, sound and the body's other senses, they are normally to be expected.

Sensory input deprivation isn't a disease.

When stimuli are taken away, some usually predictable reactions occur, typically not pleasant.

Most of us aren't plants, but enviornments without daylight produce reactions in people. Reactions, not necessarily diseases.

Seasons: Spring, summer, autumn/fall, winter.

Seasonal Affective Disorder: seen in the late winter season in northern latitudes, associated with low light levels. Winter: one of the four seasons.

Mike in BC, in Winter since late October. On December 21st. in North Central BC, the sun typically rises and sets within about a seven hour span, this at a time in the year when overcast skies are common, in Inuvik, NWT (way north of 23.5 degrees North latitude) the sun typically does not rise! Between the two, the daylight hours are shorter and shorter at that date; this is due to the earth's tilt on its axis in its perambulations around the sun. Hope this is not too much information for you to assimilate.

Yep, you'd probably need to have homes above and below the equator to miss it, unless windows don't exist in that particular environment, with possibly agoraphobia.

One would need to be completely unaware, isolated, self-centered or adolescent to not notice how many folks' general temperament change with the seasons.

It pretty much is this time of year. I'm depressed. ;)

Pete Keillor at 43.3N in overcast Michigan.

On Sat, 10 Jan 2009 07:02:20 -0500, the infamous Pete Keillor scrawled the following:

We're having a week of sun and only partial cloudiness right now so I'm happy again.

I saw my closest rainbow ever on my way home the day before yesterday. It was huge and brilliant at that 1/4 mile range. She blew any inkling of SAD right out of me, she did.

-- Acceptance is such an important commodity, some have called it "the first law of personal growth." -- Peter McWilliams, Life 101

Still not buying it.

I can sit in the home all day in the summer with the shades drawn and bicker with a roomate.

All that means is I'm weak, boring and looking for excuses for my behavior. Why not blame the weather?

so, when does Bush Blame Disorder become a real disease too?

Here's my theory.

Pansies cry more in the winter.

It's caused by birds migrating away.

Without the sounds of migratory birds, people get sad.

I call it BDS, Bird Deprivation Syndrome.

It's not my responsibility to make sure you comprehend or believe anything.

I know how fitting the adjectives are, that I used earlier pertain to certain people:

One would need to be completely unaware, isolated, self-centered or adolescent to not notice how many folks' general temperament change with the seasons.

I eagerly await the publication in the of your paper on Bird Deprivation Syndrome. Mike in BC

Take note: you are all witnessing the validation of my age-regression theory i.e. that the older one becomes, the more one's behaviour reverts to childhood(childish?) patterns. I am now 70 and behaving like a 16 year old. God, I hope I don't last till 90!

Mike in BC

On Sun, 11 Jan 2009 20:33:13 GMT, the infamous Michael Gray scrawled the following:

I'm an 18 year old in a 55 year old body with the back of a 90 year old. Timely enough, this came in this evening's email:

THE GEOGRAPHY OF A WOMAN

Between 18 and 22, a woman is like Africa; half-discovered, half wild, fertile and naturally beautiful.

Between 23 and 30, a woman is like Europe; well developed and open to trade, especially for some.

Between 31 and 35, a woman is like Spain; very hot, relaxed and convinced of her own beauty.

Between 36 and 40, a woman is like Greece; gently aging but still a warm and desirable place to visit.

Between 41 and 50, a woman is like Great Britain; with a glorious and all-conquering past.

Between 51 and 60, a woman is like Israel; has been through war and doesn't make the same mistakes twice, takes care of business.

Between 61 and 70, a woman is like Canada; self-preserving, but open to meeting new people.

After 70, she becomes Tibet; wildly beautiful, with a mysterious past and the wisdom of the ages... only those with an adventurous spirit and a thirst for spiritual knowledge visit there.

THE GEOGRAPHY OF A MAN

Between 1 and 70, a man is like Iran; ruled by nuts.

-- Acceptance is such an important commodity, some have called it "the first law of personal growth." -- Peter McWilliams, Life 101