Posts Tagged ‘Depression’

16 items.

Self-Medication

by Seraphine Khorana on November 2nd, 2010
Posted In: Comics
Self-Medication

I’m going to concentrate only on positive influences. Starting tomorrow. I’m going to burn sage and eat chocolate.

People are just fed up with the Obama administration – that ‘hope and change’ thing, said retail manager Nadine Leder in Milwaukee, Wisconson.
Quotation from Republicans poised for big gains by Andy Smith, Reuters.
(Yes, people are fed up with that “hope” thing. It’s horribly tiring.)

Participants who tested positive for depression consumed an average of 8.4 servings of chocolate per month.
Quotation from Depression and Chocolate: Self-Medication or Perpetuation? by Charles Bankhead
(Only 8.4 servings per month? That surely must be a misprint.)

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Mexican Standoff

by Seraphine Khorana on October 3rd, 2010
Posted In: Comics
Mexican Standoff

I got my cast taken off last week. Actually, I took it off myself. I was tired of wearing it.

When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.
Quotation from Thomas Paine

The economy is stuck in an unvirtuous cycle.
Quotation from Mark Vitner, Wells Fargo Bank economist

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At Other Times, I Feel Blessed

by Seraphine Khorana on June 1st, 2010
Posted In: Comics
At Other Times, I Feel Blessed

Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. Those are the five stages of, well, everything seriously bad that happens to us– grief, lost relationships, addiction, job dislocation and death– to name a few (as if one can bargain with grief and death).
Nothing in life seems quite so orderly, however. Some people never get past their own feelings of anger and bitterness. Others seem to live in a perpetual state of grace and total acceptance (though in the interest of disclosure, I haven’t yet met anyone that fits that description). Life is an ongoing process, and I feel blessed– even in spite of it all.

Romeo: Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear…
Juliet: O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,
That monthly changes in her circled orb,
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.
Quotation from William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Blessed are the forgetful: for they get the better even of their blunders.
Quotation from Friedrich Nietzsche

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Send in the Clowns

by Seraphine Khorana on March 11th, 2010
Posted In: Comics
Send in the Clowns

I need cheering up. Does anyone have something uplifting or funny to say? Maybe a little joke?

What do you give a sick bird?
A tweetment.
Quotation from JokesByKids.com

Who recognises the church in the photo? It’s located in the Northern California town of Bodega, and it was shown in the Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds.

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Name Brand Placebo

by Seraphine Khorana on February 10th, 2010
Posted In: Comics
Name Brand Placebo

Placebos are scientifically shown to be effective 40% of the time against pain and depression. However, I haven’t found any studies that specifically compare the beneficial effects of a “name brand” Placebo versus a generic sugar pill. I suspect that this is one case where the name brand drug would be more effective than the generic version, despite both having the same “active ingredient.” Yes, I will accept a research grant to prove the point.

Reportedly, patients have even become “addicted” to placebos: According to an Internet paper by Ben Z. Krentzman, M.D., one patient ingested 10,000 placebo units in one year; another had a compulsive desire to take placebo tablets, tended to increase the “dose,” couldn’t stop taking the “medicine” without psychiatric help, and suffered “abstinence syndrome” when deprived of it—classic characteristics of drug addiction.
Quotation from Kenneth E. Legins, Is Prescribing Placebos Ethical?, American Council on Science and Health

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Camel Assisted Therapy

by Seraphine Khorana on January 16th, 2010
Posted In: Comics
Camel Assisted Therapy

Petting a dog, a camel or an elephant can reduce feelings of loneliness and stress. Assuming of course, you don’t get spat upon, peed on, bitten or squashed.

It’s not that animals have magic vibes coming out of them. It’s about giving people a sense of life beyond what they ordinarily experience.
Quotation from William Banks, Saint Louis University

Elephant Therapy and Equine Therapy Programs are used as tools for gaining self-understanding and emotional growth in adults and children, and are especially effective for children with Asperger’s and Autism.

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Zero World

by Seraphine Khorana on September 6th, 2009
Posted In: Comics
Zero World

When you lose direction (velocity), you’re susceptible to Zitterbewegung, or that jittery existence between positive and negative energy. Some call it ambivalence, others describe it as lethargy. It’s not being able to move in any direction.

What to do if you find yourself stuck in a crack in the ground underneath a giant boulder you can’t move, with no hope of rescue. Consider how lucky you are that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn’t been good to you so far, which given your current circumstances seems more likely, consider how lucky you are that it won’t be troubling you much longer.
Quotation from Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

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What am I supposed to do?

by Seraphine Khorana on September 3rd, 2009
Posted In: Comics
What am I supposed to do?

You may have noticed fewer updates to Encore Seraphine lately. I’m lethargic, exhausted, depressed. My chest hurts and my throat burns. I dread turning off the lights at night to (try to) sleep. My blood, urine and xrays are all normal. The doctor thinks it’s likely stress, so he’s given me the antianxiety drug Ativan. I’ve given up coffee and chocolate. I’m not visiting my friend’s blogs like I should. I feel like I’m letting everyone down: my readers, my friends, my spouse, even (especially) myself. I’d like my life back. Haven’t you felt that way too?

Stress is nothing more than a socially acceptable form of mental illness.
Quotation from Richard Carlson

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Circling the Drain

by Seraphine Khorana on August 4th, 2009
Posted In: Comics
Circling the Drain

Is the glass half full, or half empty? It depends on whether you’re pouring or drinking.
Quotation from Bill Cosby

A lonely lake, a lonely shore,
A lone pine leaning on the moon;
All night the water-beating wings
Of a solitary loon.
With mournful wail from dusk to dawn
She gibbered at the taunting stars—
A hermit-soul gone raving mad
And beating at her bars.
Poem by Lew Sarett, The Loon

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What’s Wrong?

by Seraphine Khorana on June 21st, 2009
Posted In: Comics
What’s Wrong?

How is it that one can have lots of friends, and still be lonely? I miss Northie, who is hardly online anymore. I miss Chase, who “disappeared” when she had her baby. And I miss my father, who died in 1994.

My Father had a profound influence on me. He was a lunatic.
Quotation from Spike Milligan

You don’t have to deserve your mother’s love. You have to deserve your father’s.
Quotation from Robert Frost

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Sort of Pain

by Seraphine Khorana on April 25th, 2009
Posted In: Comics
Sort of Pain

Thank heavens for pizza and percocet.

New flu has spread widely, cannot be contained (Rueters)
Nail stuck in nose for years finally dislodged (NY Daily News)

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Sweet Sad Songs

by Seraphine Khorana on April 23rd, 2009
Posted In: Comics
Sweet Sad Songs

In the missing, we find what is left of ourselves. When I feel sad, I like to listen to the songs of Lucinda Williams, especially from her album “West.” What is your favorite sweet sad song?

Why, what could she have done being what she is?
Was there another Troy for her to burn?
Poem by W.B. Yeats, No Second Troy

Tears! tears! tears!
In the night, in solitude, tears;
On the white shore dripping, dripping, suck’d in by the sand;
Tears—not a star shining—all dark and desolate;
Moist tears from the eyes of a muffled head.
Poem from Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

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T.A.R.P. Troubled Assets Relief Program

by Seraphine Khorana on March 16th, 2009
Posted In: Comics
T.A.R.P. Troubled Assets Relief Program

Punishment should fit the crime. I’m offended when I read that Bernard Madoff, the crook who pled guilty to defrauding $65 Billion from investors, schools and charities, might be eligible for release or parole in 20 years.

Video: Bernard Madoff Jailed (Zibb.com, “Strictly Business”)

I’m gonna lock my heart
And throw away the key
I’m wise to all those tricks you played on me
I’m gonna turn my back on love
Gonna snub the moon above and
Seal all my windows up with tin.
Lyrics from Billie Holiday, I’m Gonna Lock My Heart And Throw Away The Key

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The cost of hiding is the value of the alternative

by Seraphine Khorana on March 7th, 2009
Posted In: Comics
The cost of hiding is the value of the alternative

apropos of nothing: off the lobby is a sauna
with a crack and my face pressed to it.
the front desk girl is putting drops in the eyes of another guest.
the sauna’s yellow light is burning my shoulder
and i should slip into the courtesy robe, and close my pores.
the bed is already turned down in my room.
but a lady carrying a dog puts down an empty wine glass
and i’m sure her dog is looking at me and licking its nose.
poem i wrote, on my birthday

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Taking a Bath Without a Plug

by Seraphine Khorana on February 23rd, 2009
Posted In: Comics
Taking a Bath Without a Plug

I haven’t taken a luxurious, hot bath with candles in what seems like forever.

The economy went into freefall and is still falling, and we don’t know where the bottom will be until we get there, and there’s no sign that we are anywhere near a bottom.
Quotation from George Soros

Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition, there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes.
Another Quotation from George Soros

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Vintage: Depression

by Seraphine Khorana on January 13th, 2009
Posted In: Comics
Vintage: Depression

Everybody goes through depression at some stage in their lives. I have sympathy for those who suffer with it, especially in their everyday lives.
I’m in Costa Rica for holiday. I’ll be back soon. Each day while I’m gone, I’ll present a vintage Encore Seraphine comic “rerun” from 2007. I’ve done some light editing on them, but they retain the atmosphere and content of the original. I hope you enjoy them, and I’ll have lots of new adventures to share with you when I return.
Happy New Year!

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