Those Ugly Winds Are Coming
My brain and body know when the Santa Ana’s are coming. This weekend I started to feel, well, strange – this morning I woke up feeling really lousy and wanted to just put my head under the covers – and the morning radio news announced Santa Ana winds are coming. The fact is Santa Ana winds do change mental status. It’s true! It’s not my imagination. These types of winds deplete negative ions from the atmosphere, and they exist elsewhere as well. There are the Chinooks in the Rocky Mountains and the Foehn winds of the Swiss Alps. Anyone who experiences these weather changes and is sensitive to them knows that jangly feeling – nerves on edge, and the headaches!
“In a 1974 study conducted by the Swiss Meteorological Institute have shown that these ill winds cause physical problems such as headaches, dizziness, eye twitching, nausea, fatigue, saline disorders, water retention, respiratory problems, asthma, slower reaction time and host of other even more serious problems. Mental disorders caused by the increase in positive ions are nervousness, emotional unbalance, easily irritated, apathy, listlessness, insecurity, anxious and depression.”
Studies have shown crime rates going up when these types of winds are present. Well, I can understand that. I just about want to rip the heads off cute bunnies I get so agitated and easily frustrated during these winds. (Note to animal fanatics: I would never rip the heads off cute bunnies – it’s call hyperbole).
There really isn’t much I can do about the Santa Ana winds, but this does bring up an interesting topic: sometimes you have no control over the world, and you just have to ride it out.
Somehow knowing why I feel so agitated and hostile is enough to make it more bearable. I think if I had never recognized what was causing it, I would feel more confused, helpless, and panicked. It’s sort of like knowing you hormone cycles – oh, ok, I feel like smacking him in the head for saying that because hormones are a-churning. If there were not that little biochemical influence I probably would have brushed it off.
One of the things about being sober is that you can get more in touch with the things that impact your mood that are NOT in your control – and thereby prepare yourself and be a little more understanding of both yourself and others.
It also reminds me of how relieved I felt when I found out why my life was out of control when I drank alcohol – before I knew what my problem was, I just felt confused, lost in chaos. Knowing that the reason these problems were happening was because I am an alcoholic told me the most important thing I needed to know at the time: there was something I COULD do about that.
