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It's here again - those dark winter months where many people go to work in the darkness, and leave in the darkness. As I age, I seem to be having a greater difficulty adjusting to it.
I don't mind the cold that much, just the darkness! I left work tonight and it was pitch black, 50 degrees, raining, and hard to see. It was utterly miserable. During these months, I barely do anything after work, other than go to the gym two or three times a week, and basically come home and sit on the computer or play Playstation.
How do you cope with the winter months?
The standard joke in these climates is that we only have two seasons--winter and construction. I just accept the hibernation factor, and do a lot of cooking lol.
I really do like the changes, though. But I understand how oppressive these gray skies can be, especially when it's day after day. I have two friends who are seriously impacted negatively by these shorter days and gray clouds (they have S.A.D.). It doesn't impact me to that extent but I have to say that I, too, get tired of the dark, the dismal, and being wet so often. No wonder kids hate it around here.
My husband was making noises about moving to Maine (we have relatives there, too). I told him My God, we're going in the wrong direction!
I have a small attached greenhouse which I have not used much in recent years. But yesterday, I purchased a lot of inexpensive house plants, plus inexpensive thrift-shop baskets to cover their plastic containers. The greenhouse will get cleaned and tidied up some more this afternoon and the new greenery will be installed by the end of this weekend. I have some outdoor fern baskets and similar things which will also go into the greenhouse to be wintered over, along with some violas which I never managed to get potted or into the ground. Now they can be potted in the greenhouse, and will add some color to all the green.
Thus, I'll have a convenient small green escape from winter's dreariness, when spring seems far away, nightfall comes early, and the sun stays behind the clouds for days on end.
I might even start seedlings, come late winter. I lack a green thumb, but I certainly can manage to water things once a week or so, and won't feel guilty about neglecting the greenhouse anymore.
Sounds lovely! What part of the country or larger world do you live in?
I make our home cozy for fall, then transition after Thanksgiving to make our home wintery.
Stupid dollar store decorations and holiday candles make a huge difference for me.
Interesting! I have started decorating for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Solstice in the last 5 years or so. I also buy stupid dollar store decorations. Decorating does lift my spirits.
Thankfully I'm not emotionally affected by the weather. For those who have to deal with SAD and live in extremely cold climates, it has to be very difficult for them.
My SAD didn't manifest until menopause. Then it hit me really hard. Suddenly, I understood why Mom had always said how much she hated winter. "Hate, hate, hate!" she would say about the long nights. I get it now.
Someone earlier made the point about not overdoing it with the light boxes, and that is a good point. Start slow, like 5-10 minutes a day, and work yourself up to 20-30 minutes a day. If you use it too much, it can actually be too activating and increase anxiety. Also, avoid using it from mid-afternoon on (assuming you don't work nights), because it can disrupt sleep patterns if used too late in the day.
Latitude 58 here, and the seasonal darkness has never been a real adversary of mine.
A vacation to the tropics or growing plants with high intensity lighting may help.
I have mostly northern European ancestry and like the lower lighting conditions and shorter daylight hours. I can't stand direct harsh sunlight, but would prefer a more northerly location to my present location at 38N, hopefully remedied in a few years. The one advantage of my current location is that it does have a decent amount of rainfall and clouds. I always take extra Vitamin D in the winter, regardless of where I live.
Well, where I am living now, everybody likes to pretend they're really rough & tough & that SAD doesn't exist...but it does.
I'm trying a 10,000 Lux light. I tried "happy lights" before, but they were the cheap ones with the blue-ish light, and apparently they are not helpful.
When I'm able to walk safely, I do that, but I've had some orthopedic issues that have limited my mobility quite a bit, so now it's a little scary to walk on slippery surfaces, and there are a lot of them here.
I'm also taking more Vitamin D, but not sure how much to take.
I think the best solution is to try to get to a sunnier climate during the gloom, but not everyone is able to do that...I know I can't. I now understand the "snowbird" concept...it's not just about the snow, it's about escaping the gloom.
It also helps to know that you are not alone with this issue. I'm relieved to have seen this post. Now I'm going to go back and read what everyone else said.
There's a reason why places like Southern California & Florida are so popular.
I think it's worth mentioning that some people just NEED more sunlight. I just found that out about myself.
I moved from a more southern latitude to a more northern one. I was one of those people who spent a lot of time in the sun, so much so that it damaged my skin & caused pre-skin cancer issues. I really couldn't take the heat and intense sun anymore, so I thought I would be fine in a cooler, cloudier climate. It took about 4-5 years of dark winters for it to catch up to me. Now it has.
Now I realize that I baked myself in the sun all those years because I really, really needed it to feel OK. Hope I can make it through another dark winter.
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Decorating does lift my spirits.
