I recently moved, which got me thinking about stuckness versus stability. In ACT, we talk and think a lot about willingness. Willingness doesn’t come naturally to us humans. Avoidance, the opposite of willingness, is a much more conditioned response in our nervous system. Willingness is a skill we can use when we feel stuck to help us get moving again.
Summer is in full swing in Durango—the trails are dusty, the rivers are back down to a trickle, and Lake Nighthorse has reached a tolerable swimming temperature. The Animas is chock full of small, colorful boats and groups of gangly adolescent geese, and bikers are woo-hooing down the jump trails in the Gulch. ‘Tis the season for increased play and for filling the long sunny days with fun. It’s also the season when Colorado Comparison Disorder—a common and under-acknowledged problem here in our great state—rears its MIPS-protected head.
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a subset of depression characterized by depressive symptoms linked to seasonal changes. Generally, when we think of seasonal depression we think of winter, but I actually see a lot of summer seasonal affective disorder here in Southwest Colorado. Summer SAD is characterized by irritability, lack of motivation, low energy, guilt, and an increase in negative self-talk, and seems to be related to the repetitively hot, dry, windy days that dominate the southwestern summer.
In my last blog post on the process of therapy, I promised I’d be back in two weeks with some juicy process-related questions. And then…I got really sick. But now I’m back! And we’re on to part three of my Q&A with a therapist installment. Part three's questions are the “hot potatoes” I mentioned in my last post, like what to do if therapy isn’t working, how to handle your therapist pissing you off, and what we therapists like to do in our spare time.