Apr. 28, 2004 - 20:42 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

Medical Term ?

Recurrent symptoms, about the same time every year are with me this year too. If it wasn't in April I would think perhaps it could be clinical depression.

Lack of energy, need for extra sleep, variable appetite, enthusiasm way down. Yet, I feel that I am worth something rather than feeling worthless, which that one thing can be a good indicator of depression.

Yearly, seasonal recurrence ? Doesn't fit in my mind really. Doesn't seem to jibe with any other sanity problem either.

Through the years it has come to me, from early childhood on. Only affects me for a short time. No high or low temperature, pulse rate, weight change or anything else.

It is a puzzle to me -- who has made the diagnosis of this affliction, it's probably lost in the mists of history and myth. But it is real to most of us I think.

I can usually figure it out pretty well. A few nice days, cool nights, maybe a skiff of snow, a few rains now and then, things greening up. Then several days here and there the outdoor temperature goes to eighty or above, which seems to cause it. Like a slow leak on a bicycle tire my energy and pep seep away.

Its onset seemed to start when I was in elementary school, sitting in a classroom looking out the window at the spring scenery wishing I was out in it instead of seated at a desk. For years I thought it was brought on by classwork or adult work, feeling in need of a long rest and an extended vacation. A feeling of being displaced, I guess.

I finally figured out what it is -- Spring Fever -- the thing that caused Moms and Grandmas to break out those evil, nasty concoctions called "tonic." Not quite as bad as a dose of Castor Oil but so evil tasting and yucky.

So Spring Fever it is, which brings to my mind a question, is Spring Fever a technical, psychiatric or Medical Term ? . . . . . . . . . . . .

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