Monday, November 24, 2008

Does SAD make me sad?

I always wanted to write like the stuff I read which is mainly 'Literary Fiction'. In the last one month, I must have bought more than ten books and started reading them only to leave them after a few pages. Nothing caught my fancy, nothing held my imagination, nothing was reminiscent of anything I could relate to. It was not if the books I picked were not interesting. in fact, when I read some of them later, I was appalled by my own poor taste for leaving such gems as 'On Beauty' and 'Darkmans' which I discovered later. I sometimes wonder whether I too, like women, experience some kind of PMS. Being an internet junkie that I am, coupled with a little bit of arm chair psychology thrown in, I did some research and found out some symptoms. 

Now, Chrisan being the resident therapist here would definitely have something to say about my observations.Based on the frequency and the timing of my behavior, I found out that this has been classified as SAD. ( how appropriate that is! ) Seasonal Affective Disorder. 

For last two years, I have been living in an apartment on seventh floor of a building which gets very little sunlight and air. Add to that my schedule of working from home which required me to wake up at 9:30 and start work from 10. Work usually stretched till 6:30 -7 PM in the evening by  the time it'd get completely dark.Occasionally I would step out to buy some stuff ( primarily to eat) and this whole routine was same for five days of the week except for weekends which I spent trying different things hoping to break monotony. A bickering family, and friendless existence did not help much in either case.

This year, I changed my job. Got myself a regular desk job which required me to sit and work with actual human beings. I got overtly excited by the possibility of working with some bright, intelligent young men and women and making a few friends. It's close to six months now. I have made a few acquaintances ( yes, and I am not being sarcastic) and no real friends. May be I have become too morose, too walled to let people come closer to me. Or perhaps, because I am seen as little senior and boss' protege that forbids people. Anyway, I don't analyse that much as long as I am spending some time in sunlight away from my 'dark' house. However, all said and done, there has not been much change in my depression pattern. 

I have lost interest in doing everything and anything. May be I should migrate to sunny California and leave this SAD life. :)

8 comments:

  1. Can empathize with you....
    but moving to sunny california won't solve the problem either...it is not the place, the issue is just lack of good friends...
    wherever you go, you can have a great time if you have the right company...
    so cheer up, smile, read good books and make good friends...life will brighten up...:)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Write more often

    In the absence of friends, who should one turn to than an ardent fellow-blogger community!

    I'm sure things will look up if you try enough. Really, step out. Catch a play now and then. Go to PnP! You might meet someone ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. ASk and I shall receive :)
    TLOB< IT Might just Be SAD, but I think your condition is chronic ennui, brought on my your existential angst...
    LAck of friends is very scary I went from having plenty of friends, multiple circles to having none, investing so much time and effort on my romantic relationship left me with no close friends, I mean They're there but not really....em's too busy, A (sameer) moved to London,
    And then suddenly this weekend I met up with an old friend, and promised to catch up etc..but this is not the important bit, the important bit was before he came in I met this random random boy, and started conversing, and voila he sent mail and wants to hangout etc...so there is hope for friends to be found thing is you have to head out...as unsung said catch a play come to Bombay call me :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. What I do when I am in such a frame of mind is watch some sitcoms .... like scrubs or 30 rock or the office .....

    Or maybe read some David Sedaris ....

    ReplyDelete
  6. Rebel--> Thanks! it's wonderful to have people 'think' about you ( doesn't happen much in my case)

    USP--> P'n'P depresses me to no end. May be when you are in town we can go together and share our woes ;)

    Chrisann--> is everything right in b'bay??

    you never fail to cheer me up. I can't imagine how positive you would be in real life. ( Watch 'Happy Go Lucky' an incredible movie, I guess the character would be similar to you)

    Btw, I am sure you havn't told him you are getting married soon

    Rambi--> I watch grey's anatomy so can't stand scrubs ( I have yet to come across a persom who likes any two of grey's, house or scrubs. i will leave ER here)

    only coupling makes me laugh. Will try to pick something by sedaris. I don't know many other humorous writers, may be you can name a few.

    ReplyDelete
  7. *TLOB
    Ahh. I shall keep that in mind. Maybe I'll take you up on that offer sometime :P

    Meanwhile, try some more British comedy then. Ramby suggested "Keeping up Appearances" to me, which I enjoyed thoroughly.
    You can also give "Fawlty Towers" a shot. It's ranked the funniest of all, by one ranking.

    ReplyDelete