Speaker 1: Hey, guys, I'm Kaylie Short and this is too much
Speaker 1: to say asking questions now turn it out you If
Speaker 1: you can hear things in the background of this podcast,
Speaker 1: I'm very sorry. I'm still recording from home and for
Speaker 1: some reason, my neighborhood has gotten so noisy, whether it's
Speaker 1: my neighbors or the fact that I live near the airport,
Speaker 1: which I feel like a reason notice or construction. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: very very very annoying. So um, hopefully we'll be in
Speaker 1: studio coming up because I it's like, what a what
Speaker 1: a dumb bit right like moves to l A. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, it's so loud, but for real. So anyways,
Speaker 1: Hello guys, how are you hope you've had a wonderful week. Um,
Speaker 1: I've actually had a really wonderful week, and I wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about something today that is applicable to me
Speaker 1: having a good week, um, and are unapplicable to living
Speaker 1: in l A. So l A is one of those
Speaker 1: beautiful places. What is with what is scientifically called a
Speaker 1: Mediterranean climate, and that basically just means that it's the
Speaker 1: same here all year round, and it's always sunny, and
Speaker 1: it's always warm gets cool at night. So you can
Speaker 1: still wear your cute jackets. But it's like it's just
Speaker 1: you know what it's going to be. I personally fucking
Speaker 1: love that I don't have to put away my clothes
Speaker 1: for the Season's like my whole closet is out. I
Speaker 1: feel like I have less ship because of that, and
Speaker 1: I can just dress the same every day. But um,
Speaker 1: it never rains here except for apparently the entirety of
Speaker 1: so far, And I did not realize how quickly one
Speaker 1: can get a vitamin D deficiency from it being rainy.
Speaker 1: And I feel like I've gotten really used to the
Speaker 1: sunshine when I'm in Nashville, or especially when I was
Speaker 1: in Maine, Like I knew what to do to kind
Speaker 1: of keep myself feeling good during those really like you know,
Speaker 1: as the days get shorter and it's just very dark,
Speaker 1: especially in Maine. I mean like it's almost to the
Speaker 1: point where you can see the northern lights, so the
Speaker 1: days are really short. Um, but yeah, I got it here.
Speaker 1: So what we're talking about is this lovely little thing
Speaker 1: called seasonal effective disorder. It affects many, many many people. Um.
Speaker 1: One of my my only favorite thing about it is
Speaker 1: that seasonal effective disorder is abbreviated as sad l O
Speaker 1: l um. But it is it's just like this, like
Speaker 1: when people say, like, oh, I have a winter blues,
Speaker 1: like it's actually like a real thing and it happens
Speaker 1: to pro vitamin D deficiency, and like I think that
Speaker 1: little things like cold shitty weather definitely don't help. Um.
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna tell you guys some things that I
Speaker 1: do to manage that, because in addition to like regular depression,
Speaker 1: your girl has seasonal depression too, And just I mean god,
Speaker 1: I saw Peach PRC, who's one of my favorite artists
Speaker 1: on TikTok post is something about how she's been diagnosed
Speaker 1: with the whole alphabet, and like girls saying same, I
Speaker 1: have been diagnosed with so much of the alphabet at
Speaker 1: some point it's just like a d H D B
Speaker 1: P D L g B t Q and I could
Speaker 1: keep going um. But anyways, so I O N S
Speaker 1: A d UM. But like it's just it's interesting because
Speaker 1: I felt like I've I've dealt with it so much
Speaker 1: more living other places and living in l A, I
Speaker 1: forgot that it can still happen. So I had to
Speaker 1: dig out the old um little tool kit for how
Speaker 1: to manage this. And we had our first like real
Speaker 1: sunny day today. It stopped flooding, so that's nice. But um, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're going to dive into this. I'm assuming that it
Speaker 1: affects a lot of you guys that you might know about.
Speaker 1: There's probably quite a few people listening who it doesn't affect.
Speaker 1: But if any of this resonates with you, you now
Speaker 1: know what to call it. It's not a scary thing.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you. It just
Speaker 1: straight up just that you're not getting sunlight. And yeah,
Speaker 1: so we'll be with that, okay, and we are back.
Speaker 1: So on this episode, we're talking about seasonal depression and
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you the like actual Mayo Clinic
Speaker 1: medical definition of this, but this is from Mayo Clinic
Speaker 1: dot com dot com um. Seasonal effective disorder, or s
Speaker 1: a D, is a type of depression that's related to
Speaker 1: changes in seasons. S a D begins and ends at
Speaker 1: about the same times every year. If you're like most
Speaker 1: evil with s a D, your symptoms start in the
Speaker 1: fall and continue into the winter months, sapping your energy
Speaker 1: and making feel moody. These symptoms often resolved during the
Speaker 1: spring and summer. Months, um it is. That's why they
Speaker 1: have these little thing called depression lamps, which I'm going
Speaker 1: to dive into in a while because that's like my
Speaker 1: favorite way to deal with this. But it's just like
Speaker 1: you're not getting sunlight, and we need some light. We're
Speaker 1: like little plants, you know, we need water, we need food,
Speaker 1: we need sunlight, we need you know, a stable environment.
Speaker 1: We need some rain for sure. But just like it's
Speaker 1: just been too much. L A has just been doing
Speaker 1: the most and I'm not about it. Um So. The
Speaker 1: signs and symptoms of a s A D may include
Speaker 1: feeling listless, sad, or down most of the day, nearly
Speaker 1: every day check check, losing interest and activities you once enjoyed,
Speaker 1: having low energy and feeling sluggish, having problems with sleeping
Speaker 1: too much, experienced carbohydrate cravings, over eating and weight gain,
Speaker 1: having difficulty concentrating, feeling hopeless, worthless, or guilty, and having
Speaker 1: thoughts of not wanting to live like that's not badly
Speaker 1: we need the sunlight. Is it's like constrained up make
Speaker 1: you like I want to unlive yourself, like really and
Speaker 1: it's like I don't know, it's just it's been so
Speaker 1: like just out of character for l A and it
Speaker 1: just caught me completely off guard and I was just
Speaker 1: like sleeping, like and it makes you feel lazy, And
Speaker 1: I think that's the hardest thing about any sort of
Speaker 1: mental like issue that involves being like sad and getting depressed.
Speaker 1: It is like you feel fucking lazy. That's also something
Speaker 1: that I feel like with my a d h D.
Speaker 1: And it's like just you don't want to make excuses
Speaker 1: for yourself, but it's like, I'm not I don't know
Speaker 1: that I have a d h D, so that I
Speaker 1: can be like, oh, I'm not lazy. I have a
Speaker 1: d h D. It's like, okay, I have a d
Speaker 1: h D. This is how I'm going to do things
Speaker 1: that don't make me feel lazy and make me feel productive. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm not lazy. I'm dealing with seasonal effective disorder. So
Speaker 1: I know that that's why it's happening, and I can
Speaker 1: take these steps to fix it. So it's about getting
Speaker 1: to a solution, not getting an excuse. But it is
Speaker 1: like enough that if you didn't know you had this,
Speaker 1: or you're like didn't realize that's what it was, you
Speaker 1: should give yourself a little bit of a break. Right now, um,
Speaker 1: because it's just your little plant and the plant isn't
Speaker 1: getting what it needs, so the plant goes to sleep.
Speaker 1: The plants little leaves, they wilt, and it's just an
Speaker 1: unhappy little plant. And I like being a happy little plant.
Speaker 1: That's my that's my favorite thing to be honestly, And
Speaker 1: speaking of plants, my basil plant is not having any
Speaker 1: of this bullshit either, so UM, I'm gonna have to
Speaker 1: get my basil plant and depression loop. Um. But depression
Speaker 1: lamps are something that the mid daylight. Uh. I actually
Speaker 1: use them just when it's like dark in general, and
Speaker 1: like I need to wake up, I'll do my makeup
Speaker 1: in front of one. Um. Because it's like your circadian
Speaker 1: rhythm is controlled so much by like sunlight and all
Speaker 1: of these things, and your circadian rhythm is like your
Speaker 1: body bodily cues. I'm not a doctor. I'm giving this definition.
Speaker 1: Feel for to challenge me on this, but I'm like sure,
Speaker 1: I'm going to describe it correctly. But it's like when
Speaker 1: you get hungry, when you get sleepy, how long you
Speaker 1: sleep for when you naturally wake up, like when you
Speaker 1: have bursts of energy, when you have like hills and
Speaker 1: valley is of energy and it's just like the little
Speaker 1: clock that your body runs on for all the little things.
Speaker 1: It needs to be a little plant, and mine got
Speaker 1: fucked like so fucked up. And so this lamp helps
Speaker 1: you wake up that if it's early and the sun
Speaker 1: isn't out, Like, I personally do not know how people
Speaker 1: use blackout curtains. If you use blackout curtains, I don't
Speaker 1: understand you, because like, if I use them, I will
Speaker 1: sleep until five PM. I will wake up completely disoriented. Actually,
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you guys a story that if
Speaker 1: my mother happens to be listening, Mom, please pass forward. Um.
Speaker 1: But one time back in my cowboy days, I I
Speaker 1: was at a bar with Lauren Elena and she is
Speaker 1: such a fun person to go out with. And I
Speaker 1: had been going through this little breakup, not the big one,
Speaker 1: but like another one that was like affecting me and
Speaker 1: like I was just feeling bad. And I met this
Speaker 1: guy at a bar. I was drinking Makers on the Rocks,
Speaker 1: which is like my depression drink, like shout out to Makers.
Speaker 1: I love Makers, but that's my depression drink. If you
Speaker 1: see me chasing shots of Makers with Makers on the rocks, like,
Speaker 1: call my therapist right now, I need to go home. Um,
Speaker 1: And that's what I was doing when I met this
Speaker 1: guy and he was like from Kentucky and he was like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's like super hot. They're drinking whiskey and I was
Speaker 1: like I know, right, And anyways, ended up going home
Speaker 1: with him, mostly despite my ex boyfriend. Turns out he
Speaker 1: lived like across the street from him, so faml about that. Um,
Speaker 1: but this man had blackout curtains and I did not
Speaker 1: mean to spend the night after whatever canudie took place
Speaker 1: that evening. Okay, if you'll hear that noise, that is
Speaker 1: the kind of noise I'm talking about. There's like an
Speaker 1: ice cream truck that comes around at exactly every single
Speaker 1: day and I'm just like I can't that's okay. Anyways,
Speaker 1: losing my train of that. Um. But anyway, so this guy,
Speaker 1: like after dinner, I wasn't gonna stay over. I meant
Speaker 1: to call an uber and then my phone dies and
Speaker 1: I didn't really notice, and I was like definitely tipsy.
Speaker 1: I mean like I was there because I wanted to
Speaker 1: be there for better for worse, but like I was not.
Speaker 1: I was not a sober co owl that evening. Um,
Speaker 1: and I wake up the next morning thinking it's like
Speaker 1: you know, I was like, oh my god, it's probably
Speaker 1: like six am. It's normally like you know, I just
Speaker 1: want to dip, like when I'm not in my own bed.
Speaker 1: I wake up really early because I'm like, I just
Speaker 1: I want to be home. And then, um, I plug
Speaker 1: in my phone, find a charger digging through this man's room.
Speaker 1: He's still down asleep and I turned on it's eleven am.
Speaker 1: I straight up slept in a stranger to home until
Speaker 1: eleven am because he had blackout curtains. And aside from
Speaker 1: that really nice guy. Actually, the bizarrest thing is I
Speaker 1: found out way after the fact that he went to
Speaker 1: all twelve years of school with my current boyfriend. So anyways,
Speaker 1: that was awkward, but I was like, why would you
Speaker 1: have blackout curtains? And honestly, that's not the reason I
Speaker 1: never talked to him again. The reason I never talked
Speaker 1: to him again is because I was well. I was
Speaker 1: telling him his blackout curtain stucked because he did end
Speaker 1: up waking up as I was trying to sneak out,
Speaker 1: and I was like, wow, you know, like I have
Speaker 1: a house and he was like, oh, like, do you
Speaker 1: have any cats? And I was like yeah, and he's like,
Speaker 1: I'm allergic and I was like, well, it seems like
Speaker 1: this one isn't going to work out, but I'll see
Speaker 1: you on the flip side. And that was that. And
Speaker 1: then he talked to Lauren Elena a while later and
Speaker 1: was like, oh my god, I really hope like Kaylee
Speaker 1: doesn't think I'm like that kind of guy. And Lauren
Speaker 1: laughs and he's like, no, no, she's that kind of girl.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, cowboy is yea. So now that we've
Speaker 1: had of the fact that I hate blackout curtains. Um,
Speaker 1: another really good thing aside from not having blackout curtains
Speaker 1: and having a little depression lamp, which you can get
Speaker 1: on Amazon for like next to nothing, um, maybe twenty dollars.
Speaker 1: It's so worth it. You can also use it as
Speaker 1: a ring light if you really feel inclined. It's a
Speaker 1: really nice, like soft datelight. Look. So I'll use my
Speaker 1: depression lamp on making tiktoks, which is just so chaotic
Speaker 1: and so on brand um, but I'll make like little
Speaker 1: things where I'll reward myself. And this has a lot
Speaker 1: to do with like a d h D and all
Speaker 1: that too, But I'll make like a list of really
Speaker 1: small things I can accomplish, because I think sometimes all
Speaker 1: come up with like these big, grandiose things I need
Speaker 1: to do, like I need to like film a really
Speaker 1: big TikTok and do all these edits and blah blah
Speaker 1: blah blah, when really I just kind of need to
Speaker 1: like repost an old TikTok just to get something up.
Speaker 1: Like ideally I make some new content, but I'm not
Speaker 1: going to do that if I'm not feeling great, and
Speaker 1: so I need to have these small things that I
Speaker 1: can do that don't take a long time and don't
Speaker 1: like feel insurmountable, and then I'll reward myself. So I
Speaker 1: created like this little list, and um, I think I'll
Speaker 1: dive into this more on another episode because it also
Speaker 1: does pertain to a d h D. But each like
Speaker 1: task has a little um like point system, and so
Speaker 1: when I reach a certain amount of points, like I
Speaker 1: get a treat. So if I do um three or more,
Speaker 1: I get three or more points, I get a little snack,
Speaker 1: and that those snacks are fruit by the foot fruit
Speaker 1: roll ups and um gusher's I get the Variety pack,
Speaker 1: and I have to do three things before I get them,
Speaker 1: and I if I do five or more, I get
Speaker 1: to play fifteen minutes timed of one of my stupid
Speaker 1: little iPhone games that I love so much and I
Speaker 1: have a problem with. So I'm like trying to curb back,
Speaker 1: and I feel like that was a great way to
Speaker 1: do it. It's like it's a little reward. And then
Speaker 1: if I do ten or more, I get to book
Speaker 1: a yoga class, and I love booking yoga classes. They
Speaker 1: get to be kind of expensive, so I can't just
Speaker 1: do them all the time. But I feel like if
Speaker 1: I accomplish things like that's a really nice little treat
Speaker 1: and that makes me like get out of bed. And
Speaker 1: also like I'll buy the more expensive coffee stuff because
Speaker 1: having something that makes me want to get out of
Speaker 1: bed is really great. That's why dogs are awesome, because
Speaker 1: you have to wake up. UM. But little things like that,
Speaker 1: and then also just like you know, journaling and remembering
Speaker 1: that it is called seasonal effective disorder because it only
Speaker 1: lasts first season and you can figure out ways to
Speaker 1: handle it. UM depression lamps, I mean, I think are
Speaker 1: the biggest one. Not everyone needs to get on antidepressants
Speaker 1: during that time, but it might be severe enough that
Speaker 1: you might need to do that. That's between you and
Speaker 1: your doctor. But you can read about this, UM. You
Speaker 1: can treat yourself for it with like like you know,
Speaker 1: behavior modification and the lamps and whatnot, UM without getting
Speaker 1: officially diagnosed. I mean, it's just a very common thing
Speaker 1: that a lot of people have, so I feel free
Speaker 1: to go read more about it. But me finding out
Speaker 1: that this is something I dealt with was really helpful,
Speaker 1: and I just constantly need to remind myself, Like every
Speaker 1: winter when I start to feel like this, I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you don't hate everything, everyone and everything about yourself. You
Speaker 1: just haven't seen the sun in several days. And that's
Speaker 1: a really nice grounding thing to remember. UM. But thank
Speaker 1: you guys so much for tuning in. I'm Kaylie shure.
Speaker 1: This is too much to say, and I will see
Speaker 1: you next week. Don't ask me questions now, turn it
Speaker 1: out you