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Showing posts from November, 2018

The SAD Struggle Is Real

            I can feel it already: that sluggish grog that follows me past the end of Daylight Savings Time. The days start to get shorter, colder, and darker. And I’m not a fan. At some point in my adult life, the seasonal stuff started to affect me more. I completely believe in SAD: “Seasonal Affective Disorder.” I’ve seen it affect all kinds of people. My grandmother has advanced Alzheimer’s Disease, and I’ve seen it affect her. People with dementia often seem more sluggish and depressed during the winter months. Those who struggle with anxiety and depression may find themselves wondering if their medication is still at the right levels during winter months.             I know some people who don’t believe in this at all. They love winter and everything about winter: the cold, the dark, and the holidays. Some of my friends are so much happier being cold than hot (Me? If we could actually have a fall or a spring with 60-70 degrees, I’d be in a happy spot). Boots and scarves are

The Great Social Media Detox of 2018

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My iPhone does this new thing where it sends me a message once a week to tell me how much time I spent on the screen in the past week. It even breaks it down for me: how much time do I spend reading, or on social media, or playing games. I’m glad that most of the time seems to be spent reading and not playing, but still. Last week I had a screen time total of 28 hours and 36 minutes. Holy. Cats. I saw a picture that said, “Sometimes you have to disconnect in order to connect.” It was the illustration for an article on why taking a break from screens can be a good thing. The article got into different ways to take a break from screens, including a social media detox. Since I do read a lot on my phone’s Kindle app and use the map app quite a bit, it’s unrealistic to go cold turkey no-screens ever. But a social media detox? Now that sounded like a good thing. I decided I would take a seven-day social media detox: no Facebook, no Twitter, no Instagram for seven days. Monday I put