Practical Tips For S.A.D.And How Candy Crush Helps

Without Prejudice

I used to go into panic mode when the weather started to cool after the dusty Summer, days that were hot, dry ready to ignite it almost seems. The hotness of the Australian day, in the house, in a car, no hiding from it.

Now I don't have to panic at all as last winter was good for me. Up to that point I suffered S.A.D. Or Seasonal Affective Disorder. And the more information you can gather the better,  on this insidious complaint. It can be a nightmare. The suicide death tolls in countries with cold, long, winters are far higher than sun filled countries. It's just a fact that people in sunny climes tend to be happier.

In my foggy, soggy, cold days of S.A.D I literally found it hard to be motivated, craved sweets and carbs and wanted to hibernate until Winter was finally over. I hated Winter with a passion. My daughter said to me once she found Winter enlivening and I looked at her like she was mad. She liked cold rainy Saturday afternoons tucked up cosy and warm inside with a good book. She liked the footy.

She liked the fact that long Summer nights were over. She and hubby always felt that they should be "doing something " when daylight lasted well into the night. She liked to rest after the turmoil of Summer. She liked wearing boots and coats and scarves of knobbly wool, rainbows of colours, brightening up her face and the day.

She liked the windows in the kitchen running steam and the smell of a roast cooking on a lazy chilly Sunday after reading the Sunday Papers thoroughly. The smell of apple crumble permeating the air with its scent of apple, butter, brown sugar and cloves.

All I could see was grey, grey, grey.

But I learned some simple tips to cope with it and then last year, no S.A.D. Yaaaay

Tips, ( mainly for Women as they are four times more likely to suffer depression than a male )

Stick to a routine, get up without groaning, just get up. Same time every day. Early.

The routine becomes habit after a while and a depressive person needs stabilility, routine, order .

Force yourself to put on makeup every day, no matter what. You might find this unusual but psychologically women feel better with makeup on. If you are tired and find even that small task doesn't bear thinking about, at least put on the " important, in a hurry, never go out of the house without fantastic four."

Concealer
Mascara
Eye drops
Lip gloss

Sometimes when you are depressed it's the overthinking part that really gets to you. Just do one task at a time and do it well. Don't think too far ahead. Tiredness can overwhelm you just thinking about all the steps you think you "have " to do.

Just start.

Talk to your Doctor. There are discussions of a "Top Up " antidepressant for depressive, anxious people. Think of it, not in negative terms but positive terms, most people that get depression tend to be over sensitive and in this world at the moment that can only be a good thing.

Buy a "Bright Light", has to be about 10,000 luxe to work well and spend half an hour a day near it as you put on your make up, do your hair, whatever. The best thing is to get out into the daylight, even if it's grey, the sun is up there, somewhere. Be determined to spend half an hour outdoors every day

Consider moving up to Qld for the three months of Winter.. The sun will make you feel wonderful.

Mental health us just as important as body health. Depression is an invisible illness.

Stay connected to family, friends. Your Church, community.

The Queen is famous for saying

" I always think that a good walk sorts everything out "

That's because exercise doses the body with feel good endorphins.

So does sex, ( if you are single apparently it's not the same on your own, but it's better than nothing. )

It's been revealed lately being in a long term relationship is amazing for your mental health.. My Sister who is a nurse said people say a lot of the elderly die of loneliness. Or they thought they did. Apparently inherent in every human is the desire for "skin to skin " contact, and we need it every

Single. Day.

Babies don't thrive without skin to skin contact. Such is the strength of touch. And that touch can come from a baby, a treasured child, your grand child, your friends, brothers, sisters, we need it. I'm lucky I live behind my daughter who is populating the South Eastern Suburbs. She has eight kids and I am Nanny to all and her oldest son has kids.

Three times daily I get a cuddle or a kiss, I'm so lucky.

Reading novels helps winter depression for some reason.

So does beautiful music. Or I find any music, Nat King Cole sounds like my Dad, so I love hearing him. Smooth Fm have a good mix and I love hearing AC/DC, Metallica, Robert Palmer, Nate Ruess and Pink, on other channels. I love music that reminds me of the 70's and eighties when my girls were growing up.

Try to eat healthy and get enough sleep.

Exercise, even if it's dancing around the lounge room to Doc Neeson and the Angels.

Enjoy the fact you can wear your favourite sweats and not look hideous. Every one else is wearing theirs.

Choose bright colours to accent your outfit and cheer you up.



Be accountable to someone every week as to how you are feeling.

Treat yourself to small indulgences.

And keep in mind that S.A.D. eventually ends.

The spring brings euphoria for a week as the hormones, feelings, mood rises at the longer days and more sunlight.

It's usually inherited.

It will pass.

Keep a sense of humour and laugh often and long.


Last Winter I started playing Candy Crush and here is the scientific explanation as to why it helps the depressed brain..

By Dana Smith

Last week, Candy Crush Saga, the mind-numbingly simple yet addictive game that involves matching coloured sweets, was estimated to be worth$7.1bn. While that amount dropped by 16% after the company’s Wall Street debut, it still left the gaming geniuses behind the free app worth billions.
Candy Crush is played by 93 million people every day, and it accrues an estimated $800,000 daily through players purchasing new lives and boosters that help them to conquer new levels. All told, half a billion people have downloaded the free app, and King Digital Entertainment, the company behind the phenomenon, reportedly netted $568m last year alone.
I am on level 140 (not something I’m proud of), even after deleting the app once because I couldn’t stop playing. So what is it about this game that makes it so addictive?
First off, it’s simple. The premise of Candy Crush is basic enough for a preschooler – just match three candies of the same colour. Initially, the game allows us to win and pass levels with ease, giving a strong sense of satisfaction. These accomplishments are experienced as mini rewards in our brains, releasing the neurochemical dopamine and tapping into the same neuro-circuitry involved in addiction, reinforcing our actions. Despite its reputation as a pleasure chemical, dopamine also plays a crucial role in learning, cementing our behaviours and training us to continue performing them.
If the game remained this easy, however, we’d quickly tire of the jellybeans and gum drops, becoming bored after a couple of binge sessions. But Candy Crush keeps us coming back in several ways. As we play, the game gets harder, the wins (and those bursts of dopamine) becoming more intermittent.
Also, despite what you may think – and what the developers of the game claim – Candy Crush is essentially a game of luck, your success dependent on the array of colours you have randomly been given rather than your swiping skills. This means that the reward schedule becomes unexpected: we lose more often than we win and we never know when the next triumph will come. Rather than discouraging us from playing, this actually makes the game even more enticing than if we won easily.
This strategy is known as a variable ratio schedule of reinforcement and is the same tactic used in slot machines; you can never predict when you’re going to win, but you win just often enough to keep you coming back for more.
Steve Sharman, a PhD student in psychology at the University of Cambridge researching gambling addiction, explains that the impression that we are in control of a game is key to its addictive nature and is vital when playing a slot machine, for example. “The illusion of control is a crucial element in the maintenance of gambling addiction … [as it] instills a feeling of skill or control," he says. "There are a number of in-game features [such as the boosters in Candy Crush] that allow players to believe they are affecting the outcome of the game, and in some cases they are, but those instances are rare.”
I approached the game's maker, King Digital Entertainment, for a comment, but the company declined my request for a formal interview. However, in its recent F-1 filing documents King disputes this assertion, claiming that while gambling is a game of chance, its games are casual games that are “easy to learn but hard to master". It believes that Candy Crush is predicated on players reaching a certain level of skill and ability, and that you have to be strategic in how you move the candies around.
Another feature of the game that strongly affects how we respond is the limit on how much we can play at any given time. Candy Crush effectively puts you into "time out" after five losses. This means you can never be completely satiated when playing and always leaves you wanting more. And by not letting you play, the game actually becomes even more rewarding when you are let back into Candyland. This is also how Candy Crush makes its money, letting you buy back into the game if you’re willing to purchase extra lives.
Researchers from Harvard and the University of British Columbia have demonstrated this effect, called hedonic adaptation, in a study using real-life candy bars. Participants were divided into two groups: one was told to abstain from eating chocolate for a week, while the other was given pounds of the stuff and told to go wild. After one week, the participants were brought back into the lab and given a piece of chocolate to savour.
The results? Those who had been deprived rated the chocolate as significantly more pleasurable than those who had been able to eat it freely. So it seems the deprivation makes the reward that much sweeter in the end.
Finally, it is no coincidence that the game is played with pieces of candy. As Sharman points out, food is often used in gambling games (think of the infamous fruit machine), tying our happy associations and the pleasure we derive from eating into the game. King acknowledges that candy's positive associations help make the game more fun and relaxing.
While there have been a couple of bizarre stories about mums forgetting to pick up their kids from school because they couldn’t stop playing the game, for the most part Candy Crush is harmless. You don’t ever have to pay if you don't want to, and theoretically you can stop anytime you want.
That said, I’ll be deleting the game from my phone … just as soon as I've reached level 1


Email Post

Popular Posts