Are You Depressed?

Am I getting SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), or am I just going through a funk? It’s been a while and I have my moments of being happy and jovial, to being tired and depressed. I guess it’s normal. When I’m in my good moods, I tend to throw down more vitamins, work out more and make sure everything is ultra clean…including having antibacterial gels handy at all times. When I’m a bit blue, the OCD kind of goes away. I’m no longer concerned with the possibilities of germs or phobias about certain idiosyncrasies that I have.

Damn infomercials with their redundant spews of poor advertising. “Are you run down and listless? Do the things you once enjoyed, no longer interest you anymore? Do you oversleep? Do you suffer from insomnia? Do you have thoughts of suicide? Have you been experiencing weight gain or weight loss? Do you cry a lot? Do you get muscle aches? Well, if you do, these may be signs of clinical depression.”

I mean, how many of us get a bit tired and run down from time to time? How many of us sometimes don’t enjoy our usual hobbies? Insomnia and too much sleep? That’s an oxymoron right there—just like weight gain and weight loss! So if I sleep too much…I’m depressed. If I have insomnia…I’m depressed as well. What’s the right amount of sleep then? Isn’t it different for everyone? If I eat less, I’m depressed… If I eat more, I’m depressed as well. It just doesn’t jive.

Then the ‘professionals’ want to jam a ton of meds down your throat for kickbacks. Great. Side affects include, nausea, diarrhea, weight loss, weight gain, thoughts of suicide, heart palpitations, increased heart rate, drowsiness, hypertension and possible death.

Give me depression any day! I mean seriously. One doctor wanted to give me a medication that had the Stephen Johnson’s Syndrome listed as one of the side affects. If none of you are familiar with the side affects of this disease, it usually causes blistering ulcerations of the cornea, mouth, rectum, genitalia, skin, and urethra, accompanied by a high fever and generalized weakness. TENS involves the entire skin and mucous membrane; the skin literally sloughs off of the person's body. ...Just lovely.

Give me a martini and make me laugh, will ya? I can’t go through this type of crap. These doctors are all drug dealers! They get these kickbacks for selling you a particular drug from a company that they’re affiliated with. Don’t buy into it. Really. These drugs are more dangerous than heroin!

The best thing that someone can do is force themselves to exercise. Go out there and just do it. (I’m doing this today- all tired and grumpy too!) Call a friend or two and make arrangements to go out for dinner and drinks. Trek over to your local book store, grab a Starbuck’s and read a good book. Rent a comedy. I know, for myself, when I’m feeling down, the best thing I could do is rent a stand up comedian DVD. It works every time. Laughter is the key to kicking depression in its ass!

Of course, I will say it, and you knew this was coming… PRAY! Really, it works. Pray sincerely and hard. Open up the bible and let it talk to you. Pray for happiness and also, pray for a huge belly laugh. It usually happens anytime I pray for that. God will never steer you wrong.

Sometimes people love the feel of pure adrenaline. They’re adrenaline junkies. Once that high is over, they’re depressed…much like myself right about now. I found this passage in a book that my friend Lisa gave me called, “Proverbs for Life for You”.

“Many people confuse happiness and joy. Happiness is a temporary feeling of pleasure or contentment that fluctuates according to your outward circumstances. Buying a new car, for example, may make you happy, but when it breaks down, you aren’t so happy anymore. The Bible speaks of a permanent feeling of pleasure or contentment that emanates from within and is based in a person’s relationship with God. The Bible refers to this as joy. It’s never changing because God is never changing. It’s one of the evidences of his presence in your life.”

It’s sad to think that happiness can be only temporary, but it’s so true. We think we have to be happy consistently. There are ups and downs to life. With God, there’s a constant flow of joy that happiness follows. For whatever religion you follow, studies show that there are more people content and happy with their lives, other than people who don’t believe in anything. Is it just the way our minds work? Or is it really the help of God? Anyone has the right to believe anything. So I’ll leave that up to you.

I guess I’m not only trying to encourage those who feel down today, but I’m also trying to encourage myself to get back into the ‘happy go lucky Deb’ I once was a few days ago. I know it’s temporary.

I’ve came across numerous bloggers who wrote that they felt depressed, but didn’t know why. I want to say that it may have something to do with SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), which is basically a lack in vitamin D, which the sun gives off. During this time of the year, when it gets dark at 5pm now, people lack the sufficient amount of vitamin D to give them that ‘happy endorphin’. The best way to get this is either taking vitamin D supplements, or spending ten minutes in a tanning bed per day, which holds the same ultra violet rays as the sun does. Don’t overdo it of course, just get the needed quantity. It really does work. Some people even buy an ultra violet light that’s specially made for those who suffer from SAD. Do what works best for you. Even get outside more during your lunch break, so you can be exposed to the sun. The sun isn’t your enemy…it’s when you worship it…then it becomes a risk for skin cancer. Everything in moderation, right?

It may not be the case, you may not have SAD, I may not have it either, but it’s worth checking it out before we rush off to these pill pushers giving us deadly medicine for kickback purposes.

Overworked, underpaid, tired of waking up to wake up the kids to feed the kids to getting the kids on the bus to driving them to soccer to making sure that they’re well fed, to making sure the spouse is happy as well. Your boss sucks and you want a raise. He/she doesn’t value what you’re worth. You feel cheated. Life owes you everything and you put so much into it. Your significant other doesn’t understand you. You’re frustrated, irritated and angry, because you want to be understood and you want them to read your mind. Aren’t they mind readers anyway? Shouldn’t they know what we want? We want more sleep, we don’t have enough time. We have too much time, and we need less sleep. Your mother-in-law is a pain in the ass, but how do you tell her that in a tactful way? She calls 24/7 and you’re just about ready to pull every strand of hair out of your head. You’re in debt and can’t get your bills paid off in a timely manner. You have collection agencies harassing you while you eat your Swanson’s dinner—already angry that your other half didn’t take you out to a nice restaurant. You can’t write a check because you think it’ll bounce like a basketball. You gained a few pounds and just popped off the button on your new pair of pants—almost poking the eye out of the guy in the cubicle next to you. Alison’s complaining relentlessly about the $2.00 she has to donate for Sally in accounting because it’s her birthday, while you sit there and try to figure out how you’re going to pay off your mortgage before they foreclose on your house.

Hang in there, it gets worse. Might as well enjoy the ride and order yourself a Ketel One Martini…straight up!