Completely Random Thoughts

[Miku Fan]

Screw you, creationists!  I'm using a freaking tool!  I evolved. Mwahahahaha!

[Soguru]

I'm ready to skip halloween and move into the Christmas season.  Fucking November.

Could be worse, could be January.

[Miku Fan]

I'm ready to skip halloween and move into the Christmas season.  Fucking November.

Could be worse, could be January.

I'd rather it be January. For me, as a 50+ single that lives alone, and probably always will, November and December are depressing months. My funk starts at Halloween, and ends om January 1st. I usually think, "Why didn't I marry? I have no family. SIGH."  After January 1st, I think, "Thank God I never married or had kids!"

[Quantum Vagina]

I'm ready to skip halloween and move into the Christmas season.  Fucking November.

Could be worse, could be January.

I'd rather it be January. For me, as a 50+ single that lives alone, and probably always will, November and December are depressing months. My funk starts at Halloween, and ends om January 1st. I usually think, "Why didn't I marry? I have no family. SIGH."  After January 1st, I think, "Thank God I never married or had kids!"

Holidays are crappy for me, as well. I don't get along with any of my family, not for an extended time, anyway, so I'd almost rather spend the holidays alone. But I'm so used to being surrounded by people on those days, it hurts, a lot. :/

[Lembach]

Only hurts if you let it. I've divorced myself from my extended family. The only one I give a damn about is my Mom.

There wasn't any one particular event. I just came to see them as the toxic, overly-dramatic, rumor-mongering, soul-sucking Irish/Catholic, alcoholic, breeder dysfunctionals that they are. And being around them causes me anxiety and ill-health. Fuck 'em all.

Don't spend time with people just because random genetics threw you together. And don't feel lonely just because the media and advertising says you should be.
Concentrate on connecting with anyone if you have to spend time with someone on a holiday. Start your own traditions. But geez, don't feel bad because you aren't doing what everyone else is doing! Free yourself from that mindset.

TLDR version: It's my hawt body. I'll do what I want!

[Edward J Grug III]

Yeah, I'm a firm believer in dumping toxic family.

[Miku Fan]

Only hurts if you let it. I've divorced myself from my extended family. The only one I give a damn about is my Mom.

There wasn't any one particular event. I just came to see them as the toxic, overly-dramatic, rumor-mongering, soul-sucking Irish/Catholic, alcoholic, breeder dysfunctionals that they are. And being around them causes me anxiety and ill-health. Fuck 'em all.

Don't spend time with people just because random genetics threw you together. And don't feel lonely just because the media and advertising says you should be.
Concentrate on connecting with anyone if you have to spend time with someone on a holiday. Start your own traditions. But geez, don't feel bad because you aren't doing what everyone else is doing! Free yourself from that mindset.

TLDR version: It's my hawt body. I'll do what I want!

Good Advice.  I boycotted my family (brothers, sisters, etc.) for five years. They finally accepted me for who I am, and we get along fine now. 

As far as the holiday blues, that certainly seems induced by media and tradition. It doesn't bother me as it used to.  I think the passing of my "mid-life crisis" cured that.  I've accepted I'm not mainstream, and am fine with that, as I find the mainstream to be bizarre and alien. Still causes me some anxiety. But, it's because I think everyone else is weird, and I am normal, whereas, I used to think I was weird and everyone else was normal.   

My favorite adult Christmas memory: A friend of mine had a master key to get to the roof of a local skyscraper.  We sneaked on top of the building around mid-night Christmas Eve and sat down with a fifth of vodka and a lot of greenery.  We got utterly trashed, and partied 'till sunrise, looking over the cityscape. Best Christmas ever, for me.

[ScottotD]

I wish we had Halloween 

[LucasM]

Just a quick idea [HAH!  "quick" he says! ]:

It is possible that the depressed mood of people only associates with 'the holidays' because that is the time of year when it occurs [around the Winter solstice].

But the source of it may be seasonal affective disorder, which may affect a larger percentage of the population than is generally believed.  [Exposure to broad-spectrum sunlight-equivalent lamps would assist with that.]

However, it is also possible that after years of people thinking that they were depressed thanks to 'the holidays', through associated learning they have come to believe that it is the holidays that are the source for their feeling down so strongly that they (and media) - effectively - have caused themselves to feel that way with the holidays, even if that isn't the original source for the feelings.

People who are 'into' the holidays generally have adrenaline bursts to prevent themselves from feeling the 'down' feeling from seasonal affective disorder, but when the willpower-push through all the shopping and crap ends, their overused adrenal glands collapse and they collapse with them.


[Don't have the energy to make the words "seasonal affective disorder" and "associated learning" link to WikiPedia entries for them.]

[Now the Psychologist will fade back into the woodwork, as I'm still operating crisis-to-crisis here, and can't afford the energy to write in detail.]

[Miku Fan]

Just a quick idea [HAH!  "quick" he says! ]:

It is possible that the depressed mood of people only associates with 'the holidays' because that is the time of year when it occurs [around the Winter solstice].

But the source of it may be seasonal affective disorder, which may affect a larger percentage of the population than is generally believed.  [Exposure to broad-spectrum sunlight-equivalent lamps would assist with that.]

However, it is also possible that after years of people thinking that they were depressed thanks to 'the holidays', through associated learning they have come to believe that it is the holidays that are the source for their feeling down so strongly that they (and media) - effectively - have caused themselves to feel that way with the holidays, even if that isn't the original source for the feelings.

People who are 'into' the holidays generally have adrenaline bursts to prevent themselves from feeling the 'down' feeling from seasonal affective disorder, but when the willpower-push through all the shopping and crap ends, their overused adrenal glands collapse and they collapse with them.


[Don't have the energy to make the words "seasonal affective disorder" and "associated learning" link to WikiPedia entries for them.]

[Now the Psychologist will fade back into the woodwork, as I'm still operating crisis-to-crisis here, and can't afford the energy to write in detail.]

Always had doubts about S.A.D.  because I wonder if it's really about it being cold, causing most people to stay inside...which results in boredom/depression, etc. In other words, is it because of the amount of sunlight, or is it because you can't lounge around the pool and drink beer? (Cabin Fever. "Snowmen have peepers!  Peepers to watch!")

I'm a day sleeper, so I hardly get any sun, regardless of the season. I still have more anxiety/depression during the holidays than during other seasons.  So, I'm certain, in my case, it's not the amount of sunlight that is the issue.

 When I would get the holiday blues, my mind would reflect upon my life, and I would wonder about what could have been- had I gotten married, had I not been injured in the military, what if I had kids, etc. 

I attribute that to media and societal pressure, because that line of thinking always ends on January 1st. Halloween, Turkey Day  Christmas  and New Year's Eve are "family and society oriented" holidays, and remind me that I am alone. Alone meaning, no wife or kids.

On January 1st, the depression would immediately lift.  So, again, in my case, I doubt it was the amount of sunlight.  It has to be societal/media and my reactions to them.

[LucasM]

True.  There are a lot of psychological reasons to feel depressed around the holidays - as you said, the social expectancy of 'togetherness'.  From treating numerous abuse and neglect survivors for whom associating with family is decidedly unpleasant, it would be absurd for me to think that all depression around the holidays from all people is from reduced light.  [Buried somewhere in the Forum here is stuff I wrote on that.] *

But SAD is real, and those that have it do actually benefit from intense sunlight-spectrum lights (we're not talking about a few bulbs scattered through their houses, we're talking maybe a few thousand watts of near-sunlight-spectrum light for over an hour a day [I believe it was]).

I was just trying to suggest that there may be a component of that lack of sunlight that adds to anything family/social related for some people.


Just re-reading what I wrote and - true to form in this condition - I left out important words... the first sentence should have started, "It is possible that the depressed mood of some people..." [accent added].  [Reinforcing why I should not post when in this condition.]

Apologies yet again.


* EDIT:  Plus, disturbed people get more disturbed when they get anxious, which the holidays are likely to do to them.  So, in the case of caregivers or other abusers, they often become more active in their maltreatment of the people who they are supposed to be caring for.

[Miku Fan]

No need to apologize!    I was just talking about my situation. That doesn't negate anything you said, whatsoever.

[ScottotD]

Happy Diwali!

[anais.butterfly]

I went to a concert. It was fun.

[RoninFox]

I've finally been to see Rocky Horror Picture Show in a theater.

I actually much prefer seeing it at home.  Some of the crowd participation is funny, but the vast majority of it isn't.  A lot of it is just kind of yelling what the people are doing at the time they're doing it.