Well, it's finally here, the day when the cold, windy days of autumn also become the cold, windy, dark days of autumn. The day when that chill you feel seems to bring back memories of walking through wet slush and fumbling for your car keys when it's only 4:30 and you've decided to leave work early and the parking lot's already pitch black. The day when it seems our temperament and disposition take a sudden downturn for no other reason than our bodies are craving the sunshine and suffering from the lack thereof.
I'm sure that numerous books and articles have been written on the topic of Seasonal Affective Disorder (appropriately acronymed SAD), and how to deal with it, but as a public service (and because I didn't have anything else planned to fill this space today – maybe I should start renting it out to campers), I thought maybe a few suggestions that seem to have helped me over the years would be in order:
10) Involve yourself in some sort of activity to keep your mind off those extended periods of no sunlight. My favorite is to play the video games “Doom”, “Lords of Shadow” and “Curse of Darkness” for hours on end.
9). Make good use of your time by performing some type of civic function, such as working out a solution to solve the nation's economic woes. Give yourself till next April when Daylight Savings Time starts again and then send it to the clowns in Washington who will probably still be in the dark over their spending issues.
8) Think positively. Convince yourself that the less sunlight there is, the less chance you have of developing skin cancer – unless of course, you decide to spend the major part of the next four months in a tanning booth.
7) Stay medicated. Though not the best recommended solution, this can often be a good short term remedy. If you schedule it right, with the proper pharmaceuticals, you can lay out a timetable for yourself so that you'll only be conscious during daylight hours.
6) Try something to get the adrenalin flowing again: If you play a musical instrument, get it out and start playing a song you hate until you're ready to throw the damn thing through the nearest window. I play the guitar, and for me, about 80 verses of “Indiana Wants Me, Lord I Can't Go Back There” usually does the trick.
5) In order to not let a feeling of loneliness start to overtake you, have a get-together with friends and neighbors and hold a contest to see who can bay at the moon like a wolf the loudest.
4) Take steps to create some artificial sunshine. Go buy yourself a giant rotating searchlight and aim it at your bedroom window.
3) Having a sense of humor about it always helps. Just as a practical joke, knock on your neighbor's door, and when he answers it, ask him why it seems to be darker over his house than anyone else's on the block. When he gives you a strange look, ask him if he'd like you to bring your guitar over and start playing “Indiana Wants Me” for him. When he snarls at you with an angry ”No! I've had to listen to you do that stupid song at least a thousand times. Now can it!”, re-aim your searchlight at his bedroom window.
2) Keep reminding yourself that the short days and long nights aren't going to last forever. If you can get through Thanksgiving, and then Christmas or Hanukkah, and then New Year's, and then Super Bowl Sunday, and then -– oh shit, it IS going to last forever, isn't it?...
1) And finally, if all else fails, screw it. Don't even bother to set your clocks back, meaning you'll end up showing up an hour early for work, which will probably impress the hell out of your boss, and leave the office an hour earlier than normal, which will impress the hell out of your co-workers -- or make them resent you for doing it, depending on how they're being affected by the ongoing gloom.
Anyone else got some good suggestions?
what a hoot
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