Cyclicality

 Do I always get lazy about blogging in October, right before having to (rudely compelled solely by my own slightly obsessive sense of tradition, to be clear) blog every day in November? I'm going to say odds are good, because my Facebook memories and past blog posts have gradually made clear a pattern of... patterns. My seasonal depression is almost comically seasonal. If I'm feeling overwhelmed and exhausted in a particular week leading up to Christmas, a memory invariably comes up saying oh look, I felt exactly the same this same week last year. 

This is both helpful and a little distressing. Do I have free will? Am I just a hamster on a wheel? In some ways it's comforting to see that my mood bottomed out just like this last year, and the year before, and the year before that, and I was so fatigued and miserable that it seemed like something MUST be medically wrong. And then I felt better, and nothing major was medically wrong, and this time I am also probably not imminently perishing and I will feel better. 

But next year at this time, I will probably feel like crap again. Is it better that I know that? Probably. When I finally figured out that I get depressed every January, I stopped thinking that I was going to make a bunch of robust new year's resolution and make the coming year my bitch. If we were traveling, I gave myself a ton of time to prepare and acknowledged that I was probably going to have heightened anxiety beforehand. Sometimes I talked to my doctor and bumped up my meds. 

But it also feels a tiny bit like this is accursed knowledge - like it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, or like I'm going to spend some of my happily-swimming-along days bracing for the icy drop-off. 

Whatever, I don't know the answer, I'm just spitballing here. I try to keep an open mind about most things, which I think is a good thing, but sometimes it just results in a terminal case of wishy-washyness. Wishy-washiness? 

I feel like I need at least one more good paragraph for this post to be an acceptable length, but I'm out of words. Man, November is going to be tough. Or not - maybe I just won't do it this year, whatever, I'm breezy, *carefree laugh*. What? Shut up. 

Comments

StephLove said…


I haven't blogged in close to a month. Well, I haven't posted. I've been writing and rewriting a post I hope to finish today or maybe tomorrow or at the very latest this weekend.

If you go through with it, I'll be happy to read your daily November posts. I always enjoy them.
Ernie said…
Am I a bad blog friend for admitting that I might be a tad excited about daily Novenber posts when I should be more tuned into your seasonal issues? Does it lift you up at all knowing your fans will be overjoyed to read what you have to say in Nov? Ok. I will take that last shut up line and apply it to myself.

Feel better. Hope you find a break from the hamster wheel. Sounds exhausting.
I always love your November posts, as you know. xo

Popular posts from this blog

Clothes Make the Blog Post

Books Read in 2021: Four-Star YA Horror

Mean Spirits