I do choose coffee, then again I grew up in Seattle where a large coffee culture grew to fight seasonal affective disorder caused by endless gray skies.

mmmm, coffee.

To me, the blues would represent depression, and not simply feeling sad about something. Depression is characterized by lethargy, sleep problems, eating problems, complete lack of motivation, and so forth, and in many cases is caused by some sort of biochemical imbalance.

So, I treat it as a biochemical/physical thing, and excercise, take B-complex vitimins which aid in production of seratonin, and try to expose myself to wide-spectrum light.
Proper diet is key too.

Sometimes, when those things are not enough, it may be a good idea to go see a doctor about it, as they can perscribe SSRI's or other medications that can help.

Point well taken.

I suppose it's a way of re-routing your energy towards something positive in your life. In a way, it's like magic, wouldn't you agree?

Certainly. I would never call any emotion, even sadness as being negative. No emotion is negative. It's what we do as a result of our emotions that is positive or negative, constructive to ourselves or destructive.

Pistachio nuts. They always help me stave off the blues. I torture the little bleeders by ripping them out of their shells and chomping hard. All washed down with ale, of course. Nut sadism is immensly gratifying.

I find a nice ale and "bustin' a nut" to be quite de-stressing as well. There's nothing like doing something active to fix whataever's getting you down, of course.

Once, years ago, a friend and I decided to make some extra money by taking a second job as line cooks at the new "Fish House" in town. We were seen as the stars of the new team, (because we knew what we were doing), but didn't get much respect or even acknowledgement from the chef. (Probably felt threatened.) That, and the long hours, made us depressed. On opening day the "chef" started yelling at us for not having our stations set up, even though we'd just walked in to find that half of the prep that we'd been assured would be completed was missing. At that point we both knew that our hearts just weren't in this new job. We looked at our gloomy stacks of mise-not-in-place and simultaneously said fuggit. Suddenly, everything was good again! Cheerfully, we handed our aprons to wank-boy, and departed to listen to Manowar and down a dozen ales or so. A grim day was suddenly festive!
It's important to realize that injustices will occur. It is essential to refuse to play a victim role.
Within a year, I was chefing one of the busiest kitchens in the country, my buddy had opened his own photography studio, and the irritating prick was but a pleasant memory.

For spontaneous Blues or generalized negativity I like to take a bath, with Celtic sea salt crystals.

I tend to get creative when I need a lift...whether it be music or painting,ect...I find the outlet very useful..its a way of excorsizing whatever negative may be keeping me down a bit..very great way to escape from reality for a bit: )

Woah, ok...a little technical there! But you're right about depression being controlled chemically. The things that make us happy do so because they stimulate a certain part of the mind. Exercise makes us feel good because it stimulates the production of endorphines, so regular excersize can improve the disposition overall. Hell, why do you think Suzanne Sommers always has that freakish smile on her face?

I usually try not to get burned out in the first place.

Let's see... there is always the Wedgemaster.

Or I could just spank my monkey.

Paddling the ass of some willing masochist seems to have cathartic properties as well.

I listen to extremely hard grinding metal (or sometimes slow depressing music of any form), take several nyquill and sleep it off.

I like to go visit an old burial ground nearby and talk with the "dead" and compare notes on who is more blue . Very uplifting.

Quote:

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Paddling the ass of some willing masochist seems to have cathartic properties as well.

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Which reminds me...

A solid hour on a punching bag, then a nice hot shower.

Peronally, nothing works better for me.

There are three things of which consistently work for me to elevate my mood or to calm my anxiety. Oddly enough they contain some type of aggression and I am a non violent person unless provoked as many. My primary is what I call “Animal Sex”, wild, angry and quick also including things such as biting and well…….My second outlet, video games such as Max Payne, Diablo etc…My third pertains to sports with my favorite being volleyball ( a good spike always works). In any and every case these have always solved my emotional dilemmas.

I play video games where I get to murder people.

Hail Satan!

Retail therapy, or rather browsing and purchasing a load of cd's and books on Ebay to plug the gaps in my collections always cheers me up no end. I'm like an excited kid waiting for the delivery man. And because everything is so cheap, the bills don't usually give me the blues either! Of course when my stuff arrives I get the biggest enjoyment out of using it!

I play my guitar or have sex with my wife.

If I am still feeling blue after trying that, I go to the store in town, stare at the fat redneck lady who has thirty kids and herpes on her lips and I say to myself "ah, yeah, I'm not so bad off....poor kids".