S.A.D...is there such a thing as T.A.D???

Seasonal affective disorder, you have probably all heard of it if not experienced it first-hand. S.A.D, SAD is what you get when it is smack in the middle of winter, you feel down because you cannot remember when the last time you saw the sun was. Most people experience S.A.D when it is gloomy, cloudy, and rainy outside...especially if for extended periods of time. They feel at the least a bit mopey or a bit sad and in more severe cases, extremely depressed. (one exception: my best friend Jessie who just loves cloudy days...she is one of a kind in many ways!)

I definitely suffer from S.A.D. and most of the people I know in Japan feel 'under the weather' when the weather is less than delightful. I wonder if perhaps this is because the Japanese are so interconnected with the changing of seasons - with each season comes new colors, foods, menus and more...so when the weather is drab, perhaps they are more easily affected than those from cultures that do not regard seasons as highly as they do? Hmm...something to think about.

Most recently I think I have T.A.D...something that I just now coined. It stands for thermal affective disorder. It means when I am out of my thermal comfort range, I am irritable and or down. Once my mom had the unfortunate experience of calling me when I was shivering and hands blue after a shower - needless to say, I was not in a chatty mood. She was extremely hurt that I sounded so displeased to talk to her. Oh, shame on me.

What is your thermal comfort range? I can take heat - crank up the thermometer baby...however I am really poor at enduring cold temperatures. (with the exception of eating cold ice cream on a cold day...the deliciousness of the ice cream makes one forget that their hand are almost frozen and falling of while holding the cone) Do you get cranky or irritable when out of your thermal comfort range? My ideal temperature is 20-degrees Celsius...you could ask me to wash your car, do your gardening, walk your dogs and I would agree in a split-second. How about you?