Seasonal Affective Disorder

Believe me, I never knew such a disorder even existed till recently lol.

As the days grow shorter and darker in fall and winter, many people begin to experience symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder, also known as SAD. This mood disorder is linked to seasonal changes in light and is marked by periods of depression, fatigue and social avoidance. These symptoms typically begin during the late fall, as the daylight hours shorten, and continue through winters marked by gray skies, less sunlight and cold weather that keeps people indoors.

I don't think Singaporeans have any chance of getting SAD though. Its practically sunny all year round with exceptions for bad weather during ''winter''.There are a few treatments available for this disorder. Light therapy, Light boxes, Medication in combination with light therapy or CBT.

Psychoanalytic Therapy founded by Sigmund Freud, is also referred to as ''Talk Therapy''. The therapy provider will look for patterns or significant events that may play a role in the client’s current difficulties. Psychoanalysts believe that childhood events and unconscious feelings, thoughts and motivations play a role in mental illness and maladaptive behaviors.

A good example of behavioral therapy would be a therapist working with a client to overcome a fear of heights. The therapist would encourage the client to gradually face their fear of heights through experience. The client might first imagine standing on the roof of a tall building or riding an escalator. Next, the client would slowly expose themselves to greater and greater levels of their fear until the phobia diminishes or disappears entirely.

Group Therapy has proven to cause progress. Knowing/meeting other people who are experiencing the same synthoms or who have recovered from a similar problem can provide effective peer support.

Creating Dreams

I remember how intrigued I was let in Naidu on the 'secret' when we did our module relating to Dreams. Whats the definition of a dream? Its as simple as this sentence. Its just an uncompleted thought. The brain can never leave anything hanging. Every thought that gets created, has to be completed.

Here's how you go about it ... Think about something you wanna dream of (works best right before bed) & then before completing that thought aka your 'self created dream', skip it! & think about something else or do something & just forget about the dream. Remember: You cannot think about that thought again. If you do, it wont work.

Personally, most of the time, I end up 'falling asleep on that thought' so its much easier than pretending to forget about it :)

Its really hard though, but it honestly works. Took me a couple of tries before I mastered the technique. You are not able to control the dream. Its just that ''the uncompleted thought which is mostly a thing or a person'' will be in that dream. Its fun to use this if you miss people :) Also, I should warn you, that ''dream'' works as a nightmare too haha so bewareeee!

The dream thing also works if you have the tendency to do heavy reading before bed. Don't be surprised if you end up dreaming of fictional characters or anything related to what you read.

Here's something on Love ...

Sigmund Freud aka The father of Psychology says that 'love is that thing you recognize as your own at the other person. Or it is something you wish you were. Love is always a reflex: of something you recognize as yours, or something you wish to be.'

I found the inscription!! :D

Evening Solace

THE human heart has hidden treasures,
In secret kept, in silence sealed;­
The thoughts, the hopes, the dreams, the pleasures,
Whose charms were broken if revealed.
And days may pass in gay confusion,
And nights in rosy riot fly,
While, lost in Fame's or Wealth's illusion,
The memory of the Past may die.

But, there are hours of lonely musing,
Such as in evening silence come,
When, soft as birds their pinions closing,
The heart's best feelings gather home.
Then in our souls there seems to languish
A tender grief that is not woe;
And thoughts that once wrung groans of anguish,
Now cause but some mild tears to flow.

And feelings, once as strong as passions,
Float softly back­a faded dream;
Our own sharp griefs and wild sensations,
The tale of others' sufferings seem.
Oh ! when the heart is freshly bleeding,
How longs it for that time to be,
When, through the mist of years receding,
Its woes but live in reverie !

And it can dwell on moonlight glimmer,
On evening shade and loneliness;
And, while the sky grows dim and dimmer,
Feel no untold and strange distress­
Only a deeper impulse given
By lonely hour and darkened room,
To solemn thoughts that soar to heaven,
Seeking a life and world to come.

-Charlotte Bronte