"April is the cruelest month"

[Sadie4629]

What is it about April?

Oklahoma City
Columbine
Virginia Tech

Some of the most horrible tragedies in our nation's history have all occurred in the month of April. Just coincidence? Is this a new version of spring fever?

[rsdsharp]

1. You forgot Waco. . .

or was that Poland?

[WilliamPitt]

2. Thief

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/WilliamPitt/245

;)

[Sadie4629]

7. Great minds?

:blush:

How about, "Whan that April with his shoures soote, the drought of March hath pierced to the roote . . ."

(That's as much as I remember, and I know that I got the spelling wrong, because I'm looking back 30 years!)

[rwenos]

3. Hitler's Birthday is 4-20

I've been reading RW propaganda for years. Fascinating, horrible. Read "The Turner Diaries" sometime. (Tim McVeigh's roadmap.) Hitler's birthday is 4-20. White supremacists all over the US have used it as a rallying point for several years, dating back before Waco and the Oklahoma City bombing.

Ein Volk, Ein Rass, Ein Staat.

The slime of humanity.

[Fleshdancer]

4. I blame the last cold snap

Also, I read that most people are born in April so maybe it's tied into self reflection and disappointment for those who aren't happy with how their life has turned out :shrug:

[stillcool]

5. seasonal change...

is a supposed factor in mental health. I could suffer from a disorder, and be perfectly safe to others and myself...but it the right amount of energy and emotion are added, the whole equation is altered. Kind of like a perfect storm? I don't really understand how it works, but then again it seems as a whole, humans have not evolved at all in understanding the mind. I guess it's not cost effective.

[LiberalEsto]

6. Change in hours of daylight, perhaps

Seasonal Affective Disorder affects a lot of people. And it affects people in different ways. I once spoke to a medical examiner who told me they always brace for more suicides in April.

I have a close childhood friend who suffers from bipolar illness. We began noticing that she always became manic in early April, because it always happened during a week-long community event we attended. She's been hospitalized more times than I care to count, and usually refuses to take lithium or other medication because she doesn't like the effects.

Since she's been living in Florida, where the hours of sunlight and night don't vary as much as they do in NJ, she seems to have stabilized to some degree, although not fully. However last year she was living in Illinois temporarily during early spring, and she had a severe manic episode that I'm thankful she survived. I do think the different hours of daylight affected her.

I suffer from SAD myself, getting depressed every Fall. Using a Sun Box helps me greatly. Incidentally my friend and I both belong to a northern European ethnic group that has a high suicide rate. I think this is partly due to their very long, dark winters.

[Sadie4629]

8. Interesting

I live in a place with one of the highest rates of ADHD diagnosis in the country--or so I've been told. A social worker friend suggested that one of the reasons may be the long harsh winters we (used to) have here on the shore of L. Michigan. I think we also have high rates of SAD.

I'm glad a Sun Box helps you.

[misanthrope]

14. Funny, I get depressed in April, too...

...but mainly because it means the relentless, oppressive heat of our eternal summer--the last five months of which is hurricane season--has arrived.

My mood always picks up when the clocks change back to standard time, the winds come out of the north and it becomes safe to venture out into the daylight again.

[Tektonik]

9. too much easter candy

[LiberalEsto]

10. Aha!

I think you've got something there.

Time for a ban on jellybeans.

[ET Awful]

11. Rwanda genocide began in April, 1994 n/t

[skylarmae]

12. don't forget WACO! n/t

[sutz12]

13. I'm sure the RWers blame it on tax day.....those evil taxes.

:evilgrin:

[piedmont]

15. 4/12/1865: Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse ended the Civil War. That was a good day for America.