PREVIOUS ARTICLE
By the lovely Grace Farris.
P.S. The witching hour, and what are your playlists?
Subscribe
45 Comments
The fall and winter seasons can be daunting times for those who struggle with Seasonal Affective Disorder, a type of depression that’s related to changes in seasons. Some people call it the “winter blues.” Any mental health struggle, whether mild or severe, can be very isolating and scary. The Fall is an especially difficult time for those who struggle with seasonal depression. As a mental health professional that lives in Michigan, I’d love for people to know they are not alone and there are resources and support available to them. A staggering statistic is that four out of five people who have seasonal depression are women. #stompoutstigma #awareness
i find myself with the opposite issue–as soon as the leaves turn and the heat finally (finally!!!) subsides, we get a little rain to put an end to wildfire season, and i get to start actually styling myself (rather than just putting on the bare minimum tank top and skirt and not caring about being office-appropriate as i try to stay cool), my mood just gets so much better. but come may/june when the rain stops for good, it starts getting into the 80s and you start noticing all the vegetation has gone bone-dry, and i have to store all my cold-weather clothes and prepare for six months with no air conditioning at my house, that’s the time of year that i just don’t want to get out of bed. i end up having to make lists to get through summer days: the garden will soon be thriving, i actually look incredible in rompers, it’s baseball season, and we’re only 30 minutes from the beach when the house is stifling. give me stormy weather and blanket cuddles any day.
I can handle the darkness once there is snow on the ground, but the month of November just makes me want to bury my head under the covers and wait until it’s over. Would love to find a way to actually live November rather than just trying to get through it!
I love Grace’s comics 💜
OMG. All the things! I live in Canada and decided to really embrace being a person of the rugged North this winter: get outside no matter the weather, candles around the house and I even bought the Nordic Cook Book by Swedish chef Magnus Nilsson.
I hope you enjoy the cookbook! I have it and keep making one thing. And I gave it as a gift, and my friend has made quite a few thiuns from it and loves it. There’s a baking one too.
Oh, Jenny and Kimh! Being Swedish, I get so curious about which recipes you like in that book? I don’t have that particular book, but I guess I might know the dishes anyway :-).
@Christina, mine is the potetkaker, which was one of my favourite foods when I lived in Norway and I never thought I’d be able to make them myself from my home in Canada. It’s p. 521 “Norwegian Griddled Soft Potato Flatbread.” But on my last visit to Norway, I ate a lot of other flatbreads (thicker and not potato based), and now I want to try to replicate those. I’m wondering if they were something like the Swedish Hono cakes (Honokaka). I think I’m going to need to do some googling. And not from that book, but my other favorite Norwegian recipes are kardemommeboller, waffles (the floppy Norwegian style), kakkemenn, etc. :)
Thank you, Jenny! So fun to know what dishes from my part of the world are appreciated!
Love the leaning into the cozy season. Such a postive attitude is a delight.
There’s always talk of eliminating it….but it never happens. So we have to adjust. I tend to look on the bright side….the days start getting LONGER on Dec 22, just 6 wks from now. Hang in there! ;)
Ha! this is my mentality as well! 6 weeks to the solstice!
I live at a latitude where the DST end saves my kids from walking to school in the dark, among other advantages. (We left the house 20 minutes before sunrise this morning.) As sad as I am to lose my evening light, I definitely prefer the earlier light. I’d rather eliminate DST than make it permanent.
It never happens. Funnily enough though, I always feel more myself during fall and winter because the time feels more ‘right’ – in the summer time everything always feels to early. Even though all the darkness all the time is tough too, of course!
I hate it. Also, I recently learned that it’s “Daylight Saving” not “Daylight Savings”: https://youtu.be/k4EUTMPuvHo
(You have to watch this – it’s hilarious!).
I thought this was going to be a clip of VEEP. Kent was forever correcting people!
so funny!! I am still laughing
Unless it was intentional, it is Daylight saving, not savings.
Reverse seasonal affective disorder – Summertime SADness, if I may go Lana Del Rey on you all for a moment – is a real thing; one in 10 SAD cases is a person who wilts in the sunlight and wraps the darkness around them like a counterpane. I’m one of them! If I may now use part of one of my favorite poems (Vladimir Mayakovsky’s “Listen!”) totally out of context –
Listen,
if stars are lit,
it means there is someone who needs it.
It means it is essential
that every evening
at least one star should ascend
over the crest of the building.
Think of us like night-blooming plants, or the little desert bats that pollinate and love them. We’re grateful to have a season to do what we do best, and this velvety gloom – there is someone who needs it.
Yes, this is my husband! Even though I am a sun worshipper (with SPF 50 always) he withers away in the summer. I’ve come to appreciate winters much more because I love watching him come out of his summer shell and embrace life again! Enjoy your cold-weather season!
Beautiful, Lauren! Thank you for sharing your thoughts and the poem. I absolutely wilt in the hot summer sun. I love the image of wrapping darkness around ourselves. Soothing, cool, rich darkness. Ahhh.
This is me. No matter where I live, SAD gets me every spring/summer. I think it comes, in part, from having spent 20+ years living in Las Vegas, where it’s not out of the realm of possibility to actually wilt in the summer.
Yes! I live in the west, and between catastrophic wildfires and unprecedented heat, I’m anxious, sad, and uncomfortable all summer. When fall arrives, I can finally relax and sleep peacefully again! The first rain is like a tonic.
This is exactly why I couldn’t hack living in Hawaii and am back in moody New England- I love the weather variety and seasons. Sunshine and rainbows almost every day is somehow draining. I find the cold quiet of winter rejuvenating, a season to tuck away! (Also I can’t help but think of this being the basis for one of the goths skits from “Portlandia” ;)
Yes! This is me. I’m all about fall and winter, and really struggle through late spring/summer.
I grew up tetchy and baby-goth in sunny, 72-degree southern California and beat cheeks for New York City almost immediately after graduating from college. The Pacific is vastly superior to the Atlantic for swimming and I miss it like a sibling, but I also feel like a zoo animal that escaped and made it home.
I feel the need to point out that we have been on Daylight Savings, and this weekend returns to Standard Time. Enjoy the extra hour of sleep, at least!
Signed, an advocate for permanent Daylight Savings
haha yes you’re right!! good semantic point.
THANK YOU for saying this. My biggest pet peeve is people calling this weekend Daylight Saving Time, when in fact, we are “falling back” to Standard Time. Jo, you should re-title this post “Standard Time” lol. Most people who don’t realize that DST is ending also don’t realize that they hate Standard Time, not Daylight Time. I am also in favor of permanent DST!
I feel SEEN! Guilty of 3/4 of these this week alone. And if I had kids, pretty sure I’d be 4 for 4.
We don’t have daylight savings in AZ, but it does get darker! And cooler! I appreciate the respite from the sun so much– and not having to push around my daughter’s naptime haha
The one thing AZ does right.
LOLOLOL Holly as an AZ resident I agree hahhaha
Amen to that, Holly. Literally the only thing I’ll miss when we finally move outta here.
The bedtime scam LOL. Definitely relatable.
When I lived in Alaska parents would never tell their kids “It’s dark! Time for bed” since in the summer it didn’t get dark-ish until 2am and in the winter it’s dark at 5pm. I thought that was so interesting!
I agree with Sarah… kids then don’t want to go to bed in the summer until like 9-10pm because, “it’s still light out!!!
Love (and use) the bedtime scam on myself and the kids!!! I detest the clock change. What would it take to demolish daylight savings? Can we?
action from congress or local governments?
Ontario recently passed legislation that would abolish the time change and make DST permanent- we just need NY and Québec, our neighbouring state/province in the same time zone to do the same. Let’s goooo NY & Québec! ;)
Endorphins for the win! I also feel TONS better in the winter taking Vitamin D, a multivitamin, Omega 3 and B12. Ask your doc for advice – I did!
I needed this action list. Thank you. I start out well in the season and then tank every year midway through. I always felt shamed with people saying it’s a mindset thing but truly my biology screams for support. Thanks.
You can also use one of those SAD UV lights. Have it shine near you for 15-20 minutes in the morning or early afternoon. It does help with general mood and that overall tiredness! I’ve used one for a few years and feel better after a couple weeks of consistent use. (I’d better take it out of the closet now.)
I agree about the SAD lights – I’ve had one from Verilux for years and it helps me feel SO much more awake in the mornings. I just sit in front of it when I drink my coffee and check email in the mornings for like 15-20 min and it truly helps — that and getting outside in the mornings
Mental health counselor popping in to agree re SAD lights! They are well supported in research and can be as effective as SSRIs for mild-moderate depression symptoms. Look for 10,000 lux, and use for 30mins daily in the morning.
Thank you VERY MUCH, to Celeste & each of you who replied. I also start out great & then decline, too. I have considered buying a light for a couple of years now, but was overwhelmed by the choices & found it more challenging knowing I needed it, but was stuck in the mire of mid-winter. Based upon this I am ordering a Veriluxe, thank you to each of you & may this be your best winter yet- sending you a hug of warm sunshine!
More to Love