Ways to Protect Yourself From the Winter Blues

It was dark when I got up this morning, and I didn’t get up particularly early. But still the sun lazed around for another hour or so, and didn’t bother rising till five minutes past eight. In Europe this coming weekend – the last in October – the clocks go back so when I get up next Monday morning it will be light. But by the 24^th of November it will be even darker in the morning than it was today, and from then on there ain’t no sunshine before eight till it’s almost Valentine’s day. (6^th February if you must know, but that makes you even more obsessive than I am, plus it’s not nearly so romantic.)

As I write this it’s still pitch black over in Hubber headquarters’ land of San Francisco, as long as you’ve remembered to switch the lights out when you left. (Do you leave? Or do you live there all night? I think you do, just the way the way my kids used to think their teachers lived in school and then did a double-take when we met one in the supermarket.) But I am getting off my subject, which is actually quite serious. Still, writing nonsense is a great antidote to a problem I used to have and that still afflicts many, many people who live in northern latitudes and a few further south. Some call it being allergic to winter, some call it SAD, otherwise known as Seasonal Affective Disorder. I call it wanting to bury my head under the quilt in mid-November and never surface again till February 29^th. (On which date the sun will rise at 7.06am, since you asked.)

Oh, yes, I was about to explain that in Hubberland you can expect to see the sun this morning at 7.27 am, which is ten minutes later than your compatriots in New York will watch it rise out of the Atlantic. But, don’t worry; you still get more minutes of daylight because it will dip into the Pacific forty-five minutes later than it goes behind the foothills of the Appalachians. (I’m using local time in both cases, of course, otherwise your day would be 3 hours and something or other shorter – oh, you work it out; I can’t be bothered.)

Back to the serious bit. Where I grew up the latitude is roughly 61° North, and there’s not much of the world further north: most of Alaska, parts of Canada (mainly the Yukon and Northern Territories), Greenland, Iceland, most of Norway and Sweden, all of Finland and a good chunk of Russia. By mid-December sunrise is after nine and sunset before three. That’s less than six hours of daylight, and the further north you go the darker it gets. Hiding under the quilt doesn’t sound quite so silly now does it? Actually, excessively sleeping is one of the symptoms of SAD. Some others are less energy, difficulty concentrating in the afternoon, lack of interest in work or activities. The one activity there’s more interest in is eating, so it won’t surprise you to learn another symptom is putting on weight.

But during the winter months my cats put on weight, laze about in front of the fire all day long. The symptoms they don’t seem to suffer from are unhappiness and irritability, but then they aren’t trying to get to work for nine o’ clock, having waded through six inches of snow. Neither do they try to cram Christmas shopping into their lunch hour or spend hours leafing through recipe books trying to decide what to cook for the vegetarian who is coming for Christmas lunch (that’s me by the way, and honestly all you need to do is stuff a pepper with some risotto and I’ll be happy.) My point – yes I do have one – is that perhaps many of the symptoms of so-called seasonal affective disorder are actually a very sensible response to cold, dark weather. It’s only because people think we should be able to keep going in the same way as we do in warmer times that depression strikes. Depression is, after all, characterised by feelings of worthlessness, and there’s nothing more guaranteed to make you feel worthless than thinking you should be doing something you aren’t and that everybody else is managing better than you are.

Some words of wisdom I heard many years ago are:

Don’t compare your inside to someone else’s outside.

Put simply, what this means is don’t ever compare yourself to anyone else. You know what’s going on inside your own mind, but all you can ever see of someone else is what they choose to show you. So that woman who seems to manage to hold down a hectic job, look after five kids and go to salsa dancing classes twice a week could be crying herself to sleep every night and wishing she had your calm confidence in crises.

Apart from being gentle on yourself and not comparing yourself to others here are a few more ways to survive the dark winter months:

Write silly hubs. (Honestly try this: I smile the whole way through every one I write.) Of course it doesn’t have to be a hub, any fun writing will do. And if writing is not your thing, then find some other way to laugh. Watch funny films, or reruns of your favourite sit-coms.

Get outside every day in daylight, and go for a walk. This helps in two ways: it provides much needed exercise, and some studies have linked SAD to lack of light. Ordinary indoor lighting has a much lower luminosity than sunlight, even the weak daylight of a typical overcast day provides 1000 lux, compared to under 500 lux for most offices. And winter’s bite is deepest and the darkest clouds glower at you all day long, you’ll still get 100 lux outside and only 50 lux in most family living rooms.

Some people find light therapy helps. This is a special lamp that emits around 10,000 lux, roughly the same as full daylight. Some doctors prescribe these lamps, or you can buy your own. They used to be expensive, but nowadays can be found at reasonable prices. You need to sit close to the lamp for 30 minutes a day, usually in the morning. This treatment doesn’t work for everyone and if it works for you, you will start to feel better after a few weeks. It is also now possible to buy light bulbs for ordinary light-fittings that mimic daylight, so it is worth trying these. If you are on any medication for depression then do consult your doctor first before trying light therapy.

Vitamin C has long been considered the winter vitamin, but lately some scientists have found Vitamin D to be just as important if not more at preventing colds and flus. We mostly get vitamin D from the sun and many people are deficient in it due to heavy use of suncream. Deficiency is also implicated in many diseases, including some cancers, and is also sometimes found to be a factor in depression. For all these reasons, it makes sense to take a daily dose of vitamin D throughout the winter months.

Finally, remember that in winter many animals hibernate. If it seems a struggle to head out to that yoga class when the wind is howling and rain is pouring down, then don’t. Lay your yoga mat out in front of the log fire (or a radiator will do) and as you do your stretches, know that you are letting your body and mind flow with the seasons instead of battling against them.

Namaste.

For more ideas please read the wonderful comments that have been pouring in from other Hubbers. Thank you everyone for you contributions!

If It is More Than The Winter Blues

If you are experiencing more than the winter blues, then please do seek help. There are many, many people who experience depression and many, many who recover from it.