Seasonal Atitude Disorder-- SAD

Here in Michigan we struggle with extremes of weather. We seem to go from too hot to too cold with just a handful of weeks where we can all agree, "Isn't this weather fantastic?" Certainly this isn't unique to Michigan or the Great Lakes states in general. In the Pacific Northwest, for instance, with their pall of clouds from October 'til May, the forecast is often the same day after day, "Partly cloudy, 40% chance of rain." People in these regions can suffer from what the psycho-medical industry has labeled Seasonal Affective Disorder, a forty dollar term that means: I feel bad when the weather is lousy.

When you live where it's cold, however, and I do, we suffer from another less obvious malady: Seasonal Attitude Disorder, SAD.  This affliction can have serious implications for the sufferer just as surely as those suffering from the affective disorder.

Case in point: The other night it got down to minus 20 degrees. That's minus 29 celsius to the rest of the world. Within a day the temperatures here had rocketed north by over 40 degrees! Suddenly, the sun was out and it was 21!! And that's when SAD kicks in. Suddenly you hear perfectly sane and rational people making statements like, "Boy! It's really warmed up!" or, ""Wow! I sure am glad that cold front's moved on!" Right. And then, SAD begins to show it's potentially dangerous side and you start to witness affected individuals show up for work in light jackets or hooded sweatshirts, or hop in their cars for a 5 or 10 minute drive without a jacket because "it's not that cold." Without treatment, one slowly deteriorates until, one day, you see the patient driving around with the window of their vehicle down and the radio blasting, excited as heck that the thermometer has hit 40. Seeing an individual driving a convertible with the top down in sub-50 degree weather is pathognomonic for this condition.

I fully understand it's cause: While the rest of the world is outside looking to see if the daffodils are up, we're outside looking to see if any pipes are frozen or ice dams have formed.

I've said it before: Living in this region of the United States is not for the faint of heart or frail in constitution.

Treatment of this disorder consists of expensive blast therapy: The individual is required to blast off from Michigan on one or more trips to a truly warm and sunny destination like Florida, California or Arizona. Only then can a proper and healthy seasonal attitude be restored. Only then can a person regain their seasonal senses and realize that 20, 30, 40 degrees is still WAY TOO COLD!