This post is off topic but not Off Topic.
I have bad days. Everyone does. Then, I have a few in a row. Bleh. Then, the universe is rude to me and I am prostrate. I wallow. I nap during the day and have insomnia at night. I know I’m ungracious and ungrateful and oversensitive. Knowing this does not help me be less so. I am lethargic to the point of paralysis. I collapse into sobbing fits and surf for information on depression.
At about this point, I discover that I have a low-grade infection in my head. For a while it was the Tooth That Would Not Die [Hi There, Regular Programming]. For the last three summers, it’s been swimmer’s ear [Midwestern Mounts]. You would think by now I would recognize the signs. But no. The decline is gradual and perspective is the first casualty.
There is no pain until a) it flairs into Technicolor life and I spend the holidays screaming (this has happened twice), or b) I take the meds and notice the mild but chronic pain by its absence. Once the infection is gone, the world is no more inclined to bend to my will, but I am more inclined to cope.
Despite ancient Greek philosophy inherited by Western culture, I wonder if the mind/body dichotomy exists at all. Ill-health makes us cranky. Placebos have powerful effects.
Which is by way of apology to anyone who has had to interact with me recently.
Onwards!
(Stray thought. The phrase “western culture” is Atlantocentric, isn’t it? The world is round. The Far East is equally the Far West. Also, the idea of a country being “Far” carries its own assumptions. After a while, it become impossible to speak. Don’t get me started on the fig leaf that is BCE. But I digress.)
Virtual Brush Box 
Glad you worked out what is going on. I am also not sleeping at night and napping during the day (and consuming huge volumes of coffee in an utterly misguided effort to rebalance my system). I’m stressed by moving, not infection, but I get where it can really mess with your mind.
There is no mind/body dichotomy. We are one unit, a whole, no matter how we perceive ourselves. Which is why I find it hard to understand how people can separate and discriminate against mental illnesses and physical one. A mental illness is one that originates in the brain, that’s all. No one says ooo, stay away, she’s got an ulcer, but they do if they find out you have bi-polar, PTSD, major depressive disorder, etc. I have all of those plus more, in addition to numerous physical issues. I find myself advocating – a role I am really not comfortable with – for acceptance of mental as well as physical issues.
Sorry. Didn’t mean to get on my high horse about this. Caught me on a bad day. But if something is affecting your body and it then depresses your mind, that just shows that humans are a unit, a whole, no matter how that whole expresses itself.
I smell a blog post, or two, or more.
Glad to be of assistance. Looking forward to those blogs.
Blog posts from you. Clearly you have thought about this issue. Where better than a blog to rant, um, discuss?
my misunderstanding. probably will be a blog or two on the subject,
Let me share the two week rule. Normally, K has a positive and energetic disposition. When she was pre-school, she would have bouts of irritability. If they lasted for two weeks, we went to the ear doctor. Lots of times. Each visit, without exception, revealed an ear infection. After treatment, she was back to her sunny self.
Two weeks.
What can I say. I’ve always been a simple creature. Not easy, but simple,
And worth it. 🙂