(1078) Seasonal light disorder

Seasonal light disorder is one of the 27 physical symptoms related to the dyslexic-autism spectrum. I remember writing about it many years ago.

I'll cover it again because it came as a thought at least twice the last 24 hours. For me, who grew up very near the equator, it did not affect me for 21 years. The first spring I spent in Virginia, I became a totally different person. During the plum rain, or peach (couldn't be sure, as in Taiwan I read about 'mei' rain which mean plum. But in North and South Carolina, I saw lots of peach blossoms along the highway during spring breaks.), I was snapping at all my close friends, a number of them joked about PMS. One was astute enough to mark my out bursts and note down the weather of that day. After the rains were over, she confronted me and asked about my family medical history.

Around that time, I read about my cousin's suicide attempt in Northern China. My cousin grew up in a small town one hour north of Canton or Kwangchow in Southern China. When he went to a University up north, he became clinically depressed. My uncle, a urinary surgeon, had him diagnosed and managed to move him back south to save his life.

On the same side of the family, I have a girl cousin who became weepy during the infamous haze season due to the burning forest in Sumatra many years ago. She did not spend any extended period out of Malaysia, therefore her experience was limited to that few weeks of limited inconvenience. I remember that was the only year when visibility was affected enough to bring in a poor harvest of guava( a tropical fruit).

The generation after mine: only my eldest brother's two children went abroad for studies. My nephew fared alright in the dark winters in UK. My niece failed and was depressed for quite a while after returning to sunny Malaysia. According to my nephew, he thinks she was reclusive and clinically depressed in the winter semester of September-January.

If a person knows that he or she has the disorder but needs to stay for extended period in a place of limited sunlight, then the simple solution of a tanning lamp emitting light of the correct wavelengths and a few hours of being exposed to such light daily would take care of the brain's need of light.

(1077) Being naive

Last week I passed some rojak (spicy fruit salad) to my neighbour's daughter. My daughter happened to have come back from work, she shared some cashew nuts with the young lady, we'll call her Vivien here.

A day later, Vivien came to me to ask where the cashew nuts were from. When I said Thailand, she seemed unaccountably excited. She told me the cashew nuts were very tasty. I have always bought such nuts whenever I go to Thailand. After the exchange, I felt unease without knowing why. It is just one of those episodes with a warning bell.

The next episode came when I was chatting with Vivien's mum in their sitting room. The mum mentioned that Vivien wanted to take advantage of Taiwan's free tertiary education. I shook my head because three years of elementary Chinese education would not qualify Vivien a place in any universities or colleges there. Vivien broke into our conversation saying that she wanted to tour Taiwan, not study there. Vivien is eighteen years old, just left one job and looking for another. Her mum and I both said that she needs to get a more stable job, save up money as well as leave as it does not take that much money to visit Taiwan for five days four night. At that point, Vivien looked at me as if I were a simpleton and smiled. That uncomfortable moment passed when her mum brought up another topic.

The next day, I talked to Vivien's mum and she mentioned that the former's ex colleague who is a college student invited Vivien to a movie. Somehow, that piece of information does not ring true. It is a few days before Chinese New Year, any girl worth some fashion sense should be shopping for outfits, not spending money on cinema shows. Anyway, a private college student who needs to work part time as a waitress would not blow precious cash seeing a show so close to CNY. Maybe after collecting Chinese red packets (money in ang pows Chinese children get), she may go see shows.

As I told my daughter my misgivings, I was hanging up laundry. The three incidences lined up in my mind and I decided to text my neighbour my concerns. She came over to ask how I know, was it someone who told me Vivien was being targeted. Well, I have no hard evidence. It was some nebulous feeling: excitement about Thailand that is not easily explained away, a chance to tour Taiwan that does not require months of saving up cash and social activity that does not ring true. There may not be anything in it, yet if the girl is desperate about new experiences like a new job in Taiwan that entails flying there with a girl friend, she may go to great lengths to hide it from her mum.

Both my husband and my son said "drug mule" when I related all the above. Well, I have alerted the mum. But if an eighteen year old is naïve enough to go behind her family's back to trust a girl friend whom she only met three to four weeks ago, there is not much anyone can do for her. I hope I am wrong, and she would not end up in death row in Malaysia or Taiwan
because she yearns above all to travel when she was young and pretty to the land of her singing idol.