YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

Hi,
I know the tendency among we depressives is to go more the SAD route with Spring being long-sought respite, but today is a really warm day here in the Northeast and it's bumming me the fuck out. Everyone's got their athletic gear on and schools of bicyclists are narrowly avoiding me ('schools' because they look like tropical fish in all that cyclist-wear and wraparounds) and everyone's got their spring gear on (I basically have one set of clothes year-round). In the dead of winter it was perfectly acceptable to hole up inside and retreat to electronic distractions. The world was more my speed. Now my 33 rpm world has been flicked to 45 (that remains such a useful analogy, I simply can't let it go, even in the age of MP3s and podcasts). So much more is now expected of us--to go "cycle-para-glide-biking" to reference a hilarious Maria Bamford bit. ("I sleep hard. I dream harder!" etc.). I just want to lay on my back and let a podcast wash over me until I nap. Is that so wrong? Anyone else have trouble as we turn full-bore to Spring?

-gt

Hello "Glock therapy"! I love the Stones song "Paint It Black", but I cannot listen to it because it hits too close to home.

So many Maria Bamford fans on the board! Love her!

Cheers, all the best to you!

Hey, Manny,
Yeah, I guess I want to Paint It Black today, or paint it colder, or something. Haven't thought of that song in a while, and because it expresses its angst so energetically and defiantly it never became a "depression" tune for me. Hmm.. now that I think of it, it's kind of a proto-punk song -- sounds so much like stuff that came around 10 years later (I'm now really scared that I might infuriate any serious music fans if I've made a sacrilegious miscategorization. I've innocently incurred that wrath on boards before and it smarts! Tho' gently delivered corrections are most welcome!)

I love Maria B.! That little vamp she does on personal ads is great-- perfectly sums up our day's outsize expectations of self and others and the whole "Facebook Effect" on self-presentation. See... you can say it like I just did or do it with hilarity like she does. I know which I prefer

Thanks Manny, and thanks for all your efforts on behalf of MIHH.

-gt




OMG - it's as if the whole world is a tightly packed china shop and I'm a clumsy bull...).

YES! The nicer the weather, the more I have felt like a piece of crap. It has never been that way before for me, but this year it has firmly kicked my ass. Hang in there, Glock therapy.

Thanks JI, Jr. and right back at ya. I don't have any of the usual patterns to my mood in relation to season/weather, i.e., it's not as simple as "winter bad, spring good" or even the opposite. A shift in weather/season will just bounce me from whatever pattern I've been in, good or bad, with change the only constant. It seems like I'm inclined to fluctuate, perhaps by nature, and weather/season provides the trigger. Or something... I don't really fucking know

I used to love spring, summer and nice weather. I still do, but now I'm realizing that there's so much subconscious pressure when it's nice out. Yeah, you feel like a total loser not living your life out there and enjoying the sun. Now I'm relieved when it's cloudy out. And during the hotter months, you get sticky and need to take showers sometimes more than once a day, which is a huge stress for me since I have depression. During winter, I can go a few days without shower and I love that. I'm a woman and showers for me is a pain in the butt, with all of the pampering you have to do so your skin/hair don't crack.

I definitely have SAD, but winter is so much less stressful for me now. I used to always loathe winter, so I'm glad I get to appreciate it now. This year, I'm resisting forcing myself to go out and do things "just because it's nice out" since it stresses me out, and it's hard. I feel like a complete loser

Agree with what Brooke said

[quote]Yeah, you feel like a total loser not living your life out there and enjoying the sun.[/quote]