Seasonal Affective Disorder

Habili-blog 12/11/18
“Seasonal Affective Disorder”
by Jared Mayes

Do you find yourself sluggish or tired when it’s cold outside? Does the rain and or snow deter you from getting your day to day tasks done? Are you looking for an excuse to blame your laziness and procrastination on?

You may be one of the millions of Americans who suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, or S.A.D. for short.

Symptoms may include but are not limited to watching too much Netflix, binge eating, and sleeping through your alarm. There are a couple different treatment options available. S.A.D. can be medically treated with either prescribed or illicit drugs. The higher amount and potency will have better results. There is also a holistic approach to treatment. It includes getting off your ass and pushing yourself to actually get something done.

I find it quite repulsive that whoever is in charge of naming the latest and greatest disorders, couldn’t find something a little less cliché than Seasonal Affective Disorder. Any medical condition that can be abbreviated to a negative feeling like “sad” just screams bull shit to me. You might as well put a neon light outside the local pharmacies and send out an invite to all the drug seeking hypochondriacs. They will crawl out of their miserable holes and flock to their primary care physicians like ants on a dropped hard candy.

Alright so now that anyone I pissed off has stopped reading, let’s talk about emotions and cop-outs. I see everyday individuals who seek out instances and happenings to feel negative emotions. I’ll tell you one thing if I have any say in how I feel, I’m going to choose to feel good. I will never condone some suburban doctor to rip off emotionally weak patients with a monthly appointment and a couple prescriptions of little happy pills, so they can get their kick backs from the insurance company and the pharmaceutical companies.

There’s always going to be that one guy who takes my opinions too far and thinks that I want to burn all the drugs in the world like a new age Fahrenheit 451.

Let me clarify, I don’t want the guy who has 7 voices inside his head telling him to hurt people running around the streets without the medication that alleviates the uninvited guests. If I was going into anaphylaxis, I’m obviously not going to refuse an epi-pen and attempt to mind over matter my quickly narrowing throat.

I see a need in a lot of cases for medical treatment. I just envision a world where instead of seeing patients as a bunch of mindless puppets, our medical professionals would treat our family members and friends with an open heart and not an open wallet. The hundreds of commercials prompting us to call our doctor immediately and ask how the cute animated smiling purple pill on the television can save our lives don’t help, but we have an even bigger role to play in the matter.

When you find yourself bored and lethargic, why not pick up a hobby or call a friend? If you find yourself sad and with low self-esteem, why don’t you make a goal and a plan to accomplish it. If you look at the mirror and don’t like what you see, go volunteer to help someone. We live in a quick fix world where laziness is considered luxury. There is always something or someone who can help us.

I’d like to humbly dispute this societal view and let you in on a little secret. Only you can help yourself. I feel sorry for the helpless and sometimes wonder if there are some out there who spend their lives stuck on a toilet waiting for someone to come around and wipe their ass. I don’t know about you, but I choose my destiny. Everyday I wake up and tell myself I’m a bad ass. It sets my whole day up for success. What are you going to tell yourself tomorrow when you open your eyes?