Seasonal Affective Disorder or something more intuitive?

Only this Autumn have I embraced the concept of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) in a slightly more introverted manner than I would normally. On posting this I am not claiming to be a qualified professional, and nothing I say should ever be taken as solid proof that something is a certain way. I base all my thoughts and ideas on my current understanding of the world, which may well be different to your own. I write to articulate certain elements that may not commonly be discovered via means of primary research. To clarify, my ideas are based on intuition and experience mixed with some common knowledge.

If there is anything you disagree with, please let me know in the comments then tell me why. I'm not writing this to impress anybody, so I won't be too offended, just make sure you teach me something!

This post is broken up into the following categories:

Pseudo-Medical Outline

My Experience

Myers Briggs Type Indicator

Seasonal Affective Dichotomy

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Pseudo-Medical Outline

www.sada.org.uk includes a list of "Key Symptoms". These symptoms help us understand the effects SAD may have on somebody in the third person.

                 I mentioned "Third person". Mental Conditions are very personal to the person in question and changes within a person's ego may not be seen on the outside (By a doctor or person in care)

• Depression
• Sleep Problems
• Lethargy
• Over Eating
• Loss of Concentration
• Social Problems
• Anxiety
• Loss of Libido
• Mood Changes

The site on the more detailed symptoms page goes on to mention that a person may suffer some of these symptoms.

The different symptoms are broken down and expanded upon. These are explanations on why somebody may be feeling each symptom.

Outlining a condition like this is useful for identifying that a problem may exist, but ineffective in terms of treatment for most people. it can lead to a very clinical and non-intuitive method of treatment degrading a person into a case study.

The types of people such a medicinal approach may benefit may be the same types of people that rely on an exterior source (Psychotherapy, friendship) to help them analyse how to deal with the situation.

If you have SAD and you are only seeking a way to deal with the winter in such a clinical way, you may not benefit from reading any further. If you are willing to accept this as a means to challenge yourself and your perception of the world around you, then read on! I am dropping the medical side as it can be too easy to rationalise everything on such a mundane level failing to reap the full reward!

My Experience

I've had SAD for as long as I can remember, (Though I will admit, that goes back to about 16 years old), and Winter has always been the season that I dread. Autumn is also depressing as it reminds me of death. It takes about a week for my mood to change properly with ups and downs in between. This started about 3 weeks ago, and it was a slightly distressing experience!

I also have Bipolar Disorder (Formerly known as 'Manic Depression') something I intend to write about in the near future though it may be over a series of blogs. Having Bipolar Disorder Type 2 is an extremely misunderstood condition. Whilst hypomania and depression are 2 things I suffer, there are so many other facets in personality that Bipolar can affect. Creativity; Drive; Libido; Appetite; sensory excitation.

These are attitudes that can also be affected by SAD. As a result, suffering both have lead to far exaggerated effects.

• Do not fight a natural chemical change in your brain with your brain until you identify the cause of the change

Having Bipolar (BP), I have been forced to constantly evaluate my thoughts and feelings as my perspective on the world can change fairly significantly in a short space of time. The length of time it takes (Sometimes it can take under a minute) makes such a change confusing and difficult to handle. Imagine going to climb a mountain with all your climbing gear, then being told you are going swimming instead. It's very easy to sink when not mentally prepared!

If it's Summer time, I will naturally be extroverted with unnaturally large social boundaries. I can be very inappropriate and I will treat acquaintances with more connection than a normal person would. This makes it very easy to make friends!

I have had a number of amazing adventures this year where I have had the pleasure of meeting so many people and learned so much. My last adventure was a month ago. I normally get slightly depressed when I come back home after a week long adventure, spend 2 days being very introverted, get bored, then head off on my next adventure. I am currently unemployed due to complications Bipolar has in the workplace (Timekeeping, focussing on task etc). This last time I didn't get that release from the depression phase. It started getting worse! This is where I had my main problem... I was acting extrovert, but I had actually turned into an introvert! I was still acting the same way I would except my super huge social boundary had turned tiny! I wasn't aware of this because I was still acting on my routine hyper regime. I first noticed a large change in my personality when I was with my friends. They had thought I was high and couldn't understand a word I was saying, and it made me look at myself for that moment, and I realized that I couldn't articulate myself to the level I once could. A simple topic like sarcasm or small talk were easy enough for me, but once I tried to describe things that required a part of the brain that is now dormant, I faltered, completely.

I have noticed that in different states, a part of me (Call it the brain or the mind, I couldn't say which yet) will switch off, and another part will turn on. I'm not aware of what's turning on of course as that isn't my standard routine. I just notice what has been switched off! (I don't notice what parts of me activate similar to a goldfish cannot adapt to living outside of a bowl if that is all it has known). I would be trying to use a part of the brain in conversation before realising I just wasn't equipped for the task! It is like being stuck on the other side of your ego boundary. This is the part where you get anxious... And some with a nervous disposition might have a panic attack at this point. I generally freeze until I can come out with a rational way out of the situation. During this time I forcibly put myself mentally where I feel comfortable, and start again. This only really works when the situation hasn't been turned into one of social awkwardness!

Once I learned to stay within my shell, I started to become a lot more comfortable with the changes that were going on in my mind and even started to explore the parts of me that are being unlocked. (Like this blog... If it is now Summer time, my current posts are likely to be very different to this if I lose touch with this part of me that is unlocked at this time of year.)

• SAD is more than just a list of key symptoms, it is a physiological response which changes how a person cognitively connects with the world.

Myers Briggs Type Indicator

I recently did a small amount of research into the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. First published in 1921, Myers Briggs concluded that everybody fits into 16 possible psychological types. There are 8 dichotomies split into 4 pairs. Each pair is based upon opposites of 4 parts of the mind.

Dichotomies
Extraversion (E) –	(I) Introversion
Sensing (S) –	(N) Intuition
Thinking (T) –	(F) Feeling
Judging (J) –	(P) Perception

Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator#Four_dichotomies 

A person is profiled with a single letter from each category. For example, my category is usually ENFP - Extraversion, Intuition, Feeling, Perception (I did not come to this conclusion by use of a test but by self analysis. A test concluded my results)

I strongly encourage you observe these types before continuing. This is because it is likely your personality type can change as you go through life, experiences can shape you or even SAD may kick in! Identifying your own type can help you perceive how this concept could be important in your daily life. Once you have read up on the personalities and have a decent understanding on how these work, take the test here: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp

You may find that you have a lot of difficulty with some of the questions. This is perfectly normal and shows that you are prone to change between types (For instance, I turn from extrovert to introvert too much to make some of the questions possible, so I switch between ENFP and INFP. I am currently INFP which I believe to be influenced heavily by SAD.

SAD lowers my ego a LOT and I will happily go through a day without wasting my time on 'pointless' social activities (Which is the opposite to my hypersocial nature during the summer). I still have social needs like I did before, but I am unable to fulfill them how I used to. As my I, N, F and P dichotomies are exaggerated, my inability to deal with this change and social distance can naturally slow me down. The lack of stimulation will then lead to depression.

Seasonal Affective Dichotomy

It is this that makes me believe that whilst the onset of SAD can be minimalised by standard treatment such as high intensity lamps. Visit here for information on sun lamps. http://www.sad.co.uk/ Nice and patronising website design!!

For those of you that don't respond, or don't wish to follow the course of light therapy, I think I might have the answer! Stop viewing SAD as a disorder. Think of it as Seasonal Affective Dichotomies! You're probably going to have no choice but to deal with the fact you're going to be a different person this Winter, so why not make the most of it instead of putting yourself in a box that you made when you were a different person! 

• Find something that connects you to the world if you are feeling in social turmoil like close friends.
• If you can't seem to keep friends, talk to somebody online who you think looks interesting. Boy or girl!
• If you find that you haven't got as much energy, don't worry about it. And don't drink as much caffiene!
• If you feel detached from everything, as if you are high, then disconnect from it and come to your own conclusions a little more. (Unless you have Schizophrenia, in which case I would recommend the opposite!)
•  When browsing the internet and not having motivation to find what you need, just distract yourself and read something new on that page, it may just open your mind a little.
• Stop feeling the need to be completely orderly. Just use order as a way to keep you from losing basic routines and your job! Whenever you can, have a holiday from your rigid lifestyle and appreciate a bit of creativity!

This all works for my personality type, and I believe I have encompassed these final ideas in a way that goes with all types. If you think I am talking utter crap, I challenge you to take the test and post your result with the comment.

Those are my views on the effects of SAD in a way that may help overcome a lot of the symptoms that come with the change. Let me know if this helps you in any way!

Is it morally incorrect to use or manipulate a sociopath?

People I have difficulty with understanding are sociopaths. But I won’t find that out until later so I give everyone the benefit of the doubt.

One may find it difficult to truly understand a sociopath until they have taken the time to piece together their personality and identified the discrepancies that hold the different aspects together.

It might be easier to think of them as a selfish person that doesn't take other people’s human values into consideration, but I don't believe they need to be selfish in a traditional sense of the word. They can care about another person, as an extension of their own ego, rather than the subconscious admittance that another person may also have their own awareness.

Ego definition - "http://www.wordreference.com/definition/ego"
The part of the mind that mediates between the conscious and the unconscious and is responsible for reality testing and a sense of personal identity. 

This would explain a desire for recognition with an inability to comprehend that they could be selfish people rooted deep down.

It could be suggested that all humans are sociopaths when it comes to an instinctive and fundamental level. However the subconscious is supposed to be some sort of barrier between instinct and humanity. We all have selfish survival instincts, but the subconscious manages to keep those instincts where they belong, or self awareness just uses those instincts without question or thought

The feelings that a truly selfless person gets doesn’t need to be an extension of one's ego, a self gratifying measure. Displaying abandonment is not necessarily something required for survival. (Obviously pack mentality may complicate this, but I don't believe everything is like that. A belief that I can't prove, and may be proven wrong in the future. I consider TRUE selflessness to be anti-Darwin. How is this possible if we’re all selfish deep down? Our race just wouldn't survive.

This explains my belief in the importance of the subconscious.

So it’s evident to me that sociopaths must have something missing, not the subconscious, but something I don't really know (Maybe somebody can comment below their ideas). They are people like the rest of us, and alienation is not the purpose of this at all! I’m establishing what I believe construes  the difference between a sociopath and a non-sociopath. Whatever you decide to do with this, whether it's to fuel your underlying bias, or to take this with a pinch of salt and adopt a thought you might agree with is up to you.

I have a friend that’s a sociopath, and we get on most the time. It’s a bit odd sometimes knowing his connection to me may based on something I don’t understand, and possibly based upon something within his own ego boundary, but I’m cool with that.

The issue is that I don’t know if our friendship can be of the same type as some of my other friendships. I know that he has stolen from me, and has no trouble in lying about it, but I know he’s not doing it because he’s a malicious person. He doesn't hate me and he hasn't done anything nasty because it's not in his interests at all. I just have to make sure that he can’t steal from me, or take advantage of me in any way. Once I have established clear boundaries on what he can and can't do (And he’ll know about it if he breaks the boundaries), there is no possibility that he’d be interested by using me in that way. This would be the case whether he wanted to breach the boundaries or not. It's important to make sure you can't be manipulated by anybody, regardless of their personality etc.

This is a question that has been bugging me for a couple of weeks now… Is it morally wrong to manipulate a sociopath? Keep into consideration the drives that this person has. As long as he’s content, then there’s no problems on his end. So surely if I was to give him what he wanted, in exchange for anything he can give to get what he wants, it would be acceptable?

It could seem like an infringement of his human rights because it's a concept that could be considered degrading, but think of it like Feminists disagreements with the Porn Industry. Because he is thriving, doing something that he wants to do, it’s a glorification of his rights?

Please give your comments on your thoughts on the subject, and let me know if I’m way off the mark (Or if I’ve said something right!)

Update! - 18:30, 04/11/12

I was having an IM conversation with a close friend on the subject, and he had these views. I've copy pasted the convo:

• 17:10

  
  

  "So it’s evident to me that sociopaths must have something missing (that something missing which commonly expressed or referred to as the void, is a lack of emotional development at a set place in time.. though genetics have been said to play a part, it is in my opinion that intelligence and awareness over these issues stop one from acting out in immoral and self destructive fashion) this is empathetic response that the more common sociopath doesn't always have the tools to deal with, cause and effect, and how their worsen their condition and portray them self to be abnormal within the normal community.
• 
  

  17:11

  
  

  a child plays on what they want, through an ultimately self destructive manner is then passed on into the encoding of the developed adult."

  
  

  Later on I asked him whether it was wrong to manipulate a sociopath:

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Him: The answer is yes, you are no better than them, and if that is your intentions you are displaying signs of narcissism, because you are fully aware this person has their faults which they frequently act on, and you are yourself choosing to reach them on the same level, rather than helping them forward from this very toxic cycle of behavior!

  
  

  Me: That suggests that a person doesn't always have to be that way?

  
  

  Him: Of course! They never learnt to act on their ability to be responsible for themselves and their actions enough to acquire self-consistency. It's all about reprogramming the mind, from the unhealthy distortions and correcting them, but only they can correct them! you can only offer them the insight into their behavior and offer the courage for them to challenge themselves! They may have become stuck in a rut of self defeating behavior for so long, they believe they really are as evil as people say, and that gives them less motivation to tackle this issue!