Moods

This morning DD17 said she felt depressed and didn't know why. She has always been a cheerful child, with only the very occasional bad mood. I'm hyper-aware of her moods, worrying about depression after what she went through, but for the most part, she bounces back quickly from the blues. I know sometimes "stuff" is buried deep inside, and I've been warned by well-meaning relatives how it might all erupt at some point in the future. I've read of kids years later developing all kinds of problems, but I think that's true of all of us after any kind of trauma. So far, so good. I like to think we did our best to normalize our lives as much as possible, shelving the hard times and challenges and only taking them out when we had to...trying not to let them spill out into other parts of our lives. And January's surgery seems a minor blip on our radar screen in the grand scheme of things.

So this morning I told her to accept her mood today, just go with it. It's best, I think, not to fight the occasional bad or sad mood. I have a newspaper clipping on my refrigerator that speaks of happiness, and tries to define it in relation to our other moods. Some of the pertinent points:

• Accepting emotions (such as fear, sadness, etc.) as natural makes us more likely to shake them off eventually. Rejecting or fighting against them is often useless and leads to frustration.
• Gratitude for what we do have as opposed to listing all that is wrong with our lives leads to peacefulness.
• Your mind can't feel good if your body feels ill. You can influence your mood by adequate rest, healthy food, and regular exercise.
  

I suspect part of DD17 down mood today is that she's tired from the onslaught of 12th grade schoolwork, as well as school schedule problems that's left her feeling in limbo for too long the last few weeks. And she has The September Cold. (I emailed her the Well blog post from yesterday, since she has not been getting enough sleep. She rolled her eyes.)