Category: depression

Summer drink recipe: let’s toast to the end of the pandemic…

~ Emmie Reve ~ Leave a comment

Ya, so I drank way too much during the winter and spring lockdown in Toronto. I ate too much too. Depression and boredom got the best of me, who else can relate? A lot of people I am sure. It’s something that I admit I’m not too proud of, but it’s been a hard year for me. Being unemployed and single took it’s toll. But since the spring of this year I’ve been trying to take back control of my life and turn things around…the world is finally opening up and a glimpse of normal is in sight. Toronto is now re-opening, I have job and love prospects again, and the summer time is just so beautiful! The flowers, the sun, the birds…the breezes. Can anything be better? I think not. After the horrible year in isolation we’ve had, it’s time to drink not out of sadness or boredom…but let’s lift a glass to celebrate better days ahead!

I created a delicious drink recently that I wanted to share. It’s refreshing and cold for the summer, and a little bit fruity with fizzy bubbles to delight. It’s also very pretty in colour and low calorie too. It only requires 3 ingredients that are pretty easy to find. First of which is sparkling water with a bit of flavour. I like the AHA, or Bubbly brand of sparkling water, and any fruit flavor will work just fine (i.e.. peach honey, pineapple, watermelon..etc.). Then we need frozen mixed berries, find this in any grocery store, and a nice brand of gin! Here it is, my recipe for the best summer drink ever:

Gin Berry Fizz, By Me!

  • 1 can or 355ml of fruit flavoured sparkling water (any fruit flavour or water brand will do!)
  • 1.5 oz. of gin
  • 1 big handful of frozen mixed berries (I use a blackberry, blueberry and cherry mix, yum!)

Put a generous amount of frozen berries in a high ball glass. Add the gin, then fill to the top of glass with the sparkling water. And enjoy! What I like about this drink is that it’s very refreshing, not too sweet, and eating the berries at the end really compliments the herbal botanicals such as juniper in the gin. Try it today!

“Pretty-sad”…A make up look that is all about being sad…

~ Emmie Reve ~ Leave a comment

I grew up in the 90’s…a decade that was marked with uncertainty for the youth in a baby boomer run society, and the idea that kids might not be okay. Teenagers were involved in the culture of sad, dealing with depression and anxiety. The 90’s culture, music, shows, movies made being sad more visible in the mainstream. Present day, it seems as if a new generation of happy, well adjusted teens has since replaced the stringy hair, grungy, plaid-clad youth of my teens. And so…as homage to my youth I created the “pretty sad” make-up look.

What is the “pretty sad” make up look? It’s the way one might look after crying and realizing there is no escaping life or destiny. Eyes are red from crying, perhaps at unrequited love, and make-up is not perfect. Half covering up the emotional damage, half smeared and old. Pretty sad is about looking little unwell, fragile and affected. And in a way, I think it’s pretty cool. Sometimes one has to let sadness and weakness surface…as a means to purge these feelings. After all it is much better to look sad than to actually be sad!

Sad Girl Make-up Steps:

  1. Prep and even out the face. Here’s the time to use a tinted moisturizer or a sheer coverage foundation/bb cream. Set with a light dusting of face powder. Why go so sheer? This look is about looking undone. So some facial flaws and blemishes actually look right.
  2. Eyes: The eye make-up will sell this look. What is needed in a good shadow base, and then pinky red eye shadow over the top lid and line the bottom lid too. It gives the eyes a slightly irritated look. As if tears were shed not too long ago! Also line the bottom lid with a thin line of dark shadow as if a liner was once there but has since been cried off.
  3. Liquid liner: Here’s the fun part…don’t do a perfect line. make it blotchy, make it smudged. As if the eyes were wiped a few times with tissues.As if eye liner was quickly reapplied. Get creative with it.
  4. Smudged mascara: use heavy coats of mascara and before it dries, blink eyes tightly together and voila…it’s a smeared, cakey mess!
  5. Blush just on the nose: Ever cried and had a red nose? Yes! Take some blush and power the tip of the nose, the nostrils and the undersides. It’s cute in a pouty way.

This is the “I’m with the band” palette by Essence makeup. See the red shadow in the middle top row? That’s the one to use for a sad makeup look.

Lookin’ like a mess, but feeling ok. Sad make up at its best.

And there you have it. The make-up look that speaks of the melancholic pain that haunts the soul. Have the eyes of a poet, while having the elegance of a made up face! I did this look for school last week and my instructor commented on how I looked sad that day. But the truth was, it was all cosmetic and I was simply celebrating the right and beauty to let oneself be sad.

Ways to feel better on sad days…

~ Emmie Reve ~ 1 Comment

When I was growing up as a teenager in the 90’s, a lot of the culture around me was sad, angry and depressed.  From Grunge music, to the death of my mother, to the uncertainty of generation X and being on the cusp of a new millenium–my youth was a depressing time.  I wrote a lot in journals, made poems, I also drew and sketched in my spare time.  I remember being sad and alone, but I didn’t suffer.  As an adult though, I find it gets harder and harder to handle negative emotions properly and healthily.  And since I’m all about natural ways of living, there are simple ways to deal with days where I feel crappy.  They take a bit of work…but are better than a day of crying in bed and not getting out.

Whether it’s about a job, a relationship, family…etc.  A lot of things can get us down…if it’s a chronic kind of thing, we may turn to drugs/medication, which is not the best.  And we sometimes even ignore our feelings until they implode on us and we get into even more trouble.  I physically have headaches when I ignore my sadness.

So let’s first understand that sadness stems from when we realize situations/problems are out of our control, and the despair grips the emotional core. But this is sort of a good thing, because once we recognize that whatever happened is not in our control we stop wasting energy fixing it or blaming ourselves.  We finally have time to heal, and not dwell.

Some ways I beat depression and avoid dwelling:

  • Take a hot bath and relax…this distraction not only de-stresses, but it cleanses and renews you, and reminds you that you need to take care of yourself.
  • Re-play all the sad songs that you know will help you.  I am a sap for Fiona Apple, since I grew up on her, and well, she made being pouty so cool! Sometimes skidding into sad emotions help more than avoiding feeling it.
  • Write a journal entry, expressing everything.  Be careful though, this is a double edged sword.  Sometimes purging helps, but it can also trigger past emotions of hurt that you also have to deal with.
  • Put on loads of make-up: after a night of crying, believe it or not, covering up and pretending nothing happened feels great! check out my article about make-up for puffy eyes! I wrote it for allergies, but it works in this case too!
  • Moisturize and pamper your skin.  When you are sad, and stressed, your skin seems to need extra moisture and pampering, so be sure to get a good lotion and slather generously
  • Work at a slower pace, take on less tasks: work is a great distraction, but if you take on too much, the stress will add to your already weakened state.
  • Understand sad days should be treated like a physical illness.  Allow yourself to feel sad, let it run its course and rest, have chicken soup!
  • Resist the urge to eat away emotions.  When I was sad a few years ago, I would go for sweets…they comforted me.  And I’d eat even when I wasn’t hungry.  Not only do you gain weight, but you’re using food to block emotions…and that’s unhealthy
  • Resist the urge to shop away emotions: I also used to buy things I didn’t need to cheer me up.  While the initial purchase lifts you, your credit card bill will not.
  • Hang out with a good girlfriend.  You don’t even have to talk about what’s got you down, just having someone around and going out for coffee is an amazing lift.
  • Sleep in and then some: make sure you get sleep.  For some reason, problems and conflicts look worse when you haven’t gotten a good night’s sleep so do yourself a favour and put your alarm on snooze.

↑My sad girl icon Fiona Apple.  A lot of her music is about being tortured, sad and misunderstood…obligatory listening for the moody.

What things do you do when you are really sad, and in pain?  Are your thoughts sometimes too much to handle?  Is life dragging you down in various ways, and you feel like you can’t cope?  Do you feel freakishly alone during your sad days?  Believe it or not, you are not alone.  I think we have to understand our sad days and let them have free run, or else they creep into our happy days, and make living ever much so harder.