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Makes you wonder how miners managed with no light at all, when this condition seems to be getting much worse now with no natural lighting... I fully understand this and cant stand lighting for long periods in shops etc. Depression risk for workers starved of light - Telegraph
I lived in Alaska for 5 years, in the middle of winter we had 5 hours of daylight and although I felt a general slowing down I didn't get depressed, or SAD or anything the like.
Miners worked long shifts at the coal faces with only helmet lights and they didn't suffer from depression either.
I will probably catch some flak for saying this but ...IMO that's because it wasn't trendy to have depression or SAD back then, life wasn't always easy and they learned to get on with it and make the most of it. As someone who has sat at dinner table and listened to my DH adult children discuss which medications they are on and how they make them feel the only conclusion I can come to is that it is 'trendy' to be on meds for depression/SAD, even better if your meds are slightly different to your sisters because then you can discuss a whole range of feelings and even better when your g/f has been prescribed Adderall which she describes as making her feel warm and woozy ! To add the above young folks (all in their 20's and 30's) are employed, have homes, have no children/debts/other stressers, they do however suffer from 1st world problems like not always being able to get a good cellphone signal or having the power go out so they can't connect to the internet.
I don't take any medications for anything but I will say working night shift and sleeping all day (and not really seeing the light of day) is a not-so-great feeling. Yeah, you might just "get on with it and make the most of it" but I feel like garbage pretty regularly. You start to feel gloomy and like you're just living-to-work.
I pretty much have to force myself outside here or there, force myself to stay awake just to see some sunlight. You don't realize the impact it has on you until you barely want to leave your house. Getting a little bit of sunlight in (aside from the physiological benefits) makes you feel good---ever just take a blanket outside and lie in the grass just to feel the sun? I would love that right now.
Maybe it's "trendy" or maybe they're just trying to make people less miserable---while making money of course. New things, psychological or physical, are discovered all of the time. Think about all of the diseases women used to have because they were "hysterical"---hey they turned out to be real things!
I lived in Alaska for 5 years...I will probably catch some flak for saying this but ...IMO that's because it wasn't trendy to have depression or SAD back then
The higher the latitude, the higher the suicide rate, per Alaska authorities:
I remember working in a cubed office that was a quasi-open floorplan with lots of windows but they were mostly shut because people would complain about the screen glare. People who had offices took to keeping their lights off and using a desk lamp for light.
I went a step further and unscrewed the bulb from the light over my desk because they were on a big circuit timer so it was impossible to turn off without affecting dozens of others. I put a small 40W lamp on my desk to supplement and it helped a lot. Thankfully I left that ****hole years ago and now work in a converted house and have two big windows overlooking our small parking lot and woods, couldn't be happier.
People these days are oversensitive... I'm not saying SAD doesn't exist.. I wouldn't want to live somewhere where there was no sunshine, but sometimes people just have to accept that things are going to happen that are uncomfortable, they can't always get what they want, in this society of instant gratification.
I very much dislike where I live now because of the long winters that just drag on forever, and I do complain about it I admit, but that won't magically change the weather... either I accept it or I move... I'm not depressed, just slightly irritated at the isolation and cold....
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