Seasonal Affective Disorder Support Group
Seasonal affective disorder, also known as S.A.D., winter depression or the winter blues is an affective, or mood, disorder. Most SAD sufferers experience normal mental health throughout most of the year, but experience depressive symptoms in the winter or summer. The condition in the summer is often referred to as Reverse Seasonal Affective Disorder. Seasonal mood...
Okay my SAD friends, here is an interesting exercise. Let's write down all the things we hate about winter and also the things we have been longing for as we think about spring. (BTW, I live in Connecticut where we are having a long, protracted winter. Yuc!!!)
What I hate ...
(1) The salt and grit and muck that used to be my car. I guess my car is still in there somewhere, but geeeeezzzzzz. The salt and muck is so thick feel like I have a car shaped ball of muck in my garage. Yuc!!! If you bump against it you get all dirty and nasty too. Yuc!!! Yuc!!! Yuc!!! Come on spring. Get here.
(2) The salt and grit and muc I track into my house every day. My floors are covered with it, no matter how much I clean. Yuc!!! It is sandy and gritty and I hate it.
(3) Looking out the window and seeing only white. Dear God, come on ... a little green please.
(4) Gray skies. Today there is some sun. It is bouncing off that darn white stuff I talked about in item #3. But we have had plenty of gray skies this winter. I hate gray skies.
(5) Darkness at 4:30pm. I know we are well past this aspect of winter these days, but I truly HATE mid-afternoon darkness. I feel like I am living at the North Pole. A severely depressed patient in a mental ward wearing a straight jacket is much more mentally healthy than me when it gets dark at 4:30pm. BTW, daylight savings time is back this Sunday at 2:00am. Yeah!!!!! An extra hour of light in the evenings. So happy about that.
(6) Biting Cold. I hate biting cold. Normal cold I can handle. Normal cold means you need to wear a sweater, eat hot soup for lunch, and sit by a fire at night. Sometimes I like a little normal cold. Biting cold means that any exposed skin HURTS when you walk outside. It means that your nose runs because you are about to die. It means that the air is "biting" you and it feels like 1,000 little knives being jabbed into you.
What I long for ...
(1) The smell of freshly cut grass. Budding trees.
(2) New flowers displayed at the garden center.
(3) The feel of dirt in my hands as I am planting some new flowers or vegetables.
(4) The feel of cool air (60 - 65 degrees) and warm sun. You know, out in the yard, planting something, a cool breeze, and warmth from the sun making it all seem like heaven on earth.
(5) Golf with my buddies.
(6) Bike rides with my girlfriend.
(7) Some other things I am not thinking about right now.
Okay, those are my lists. How about yours?
What I hate ...
(1) The salt and grit and muck that used to be my car. I guess my car is still in there somewhere, but geeeeezzzzzz. The salt and muck is so thick feel like I have a car shaped ball of muck in my garage. Yuc!!! If you bump against it you get all dirty and nasty too. Yuc!!! Yuc!!! Yuc!!! Come on spring. Get here.
(2) The salt and grit and muc I track into my house every day. My floors are covered with it, no matter how much I clean. Yuc!!! It is sandy and gritty and I hate it.
(3) Looking out the window and seeing only white. Dear God, come on ... a little green please.
(4) Gray skies. Today there is some sun. It is bouncing off that darn white stuff I talked about in item #3. But we have had plenty of gray skies this winter. I hate gray skies.
(5) Darkness at 4:30pm. I know we are well past this aspect of winter these days, but I truly HATE mid-afternoon darkness. I feel like I am living at the North Pole. A severely depressed patient in a mental ward wearing a straight jacket is much more mentally healthy than me when it gets dark at 4:30pm. BTW, daylight savings time is back this Sunday at 2:00am. Yeah!!!!! An extra hour of light in the evenings. So happy about that.
(6) Biting Cold. I hate biting cold. Normal cold I can handle. Normal cold means you need to wear a sweater, eat hot soup for lunch, and sit by a fire at night. Sometimes I like a little normal cold. Biting cold means that any exposed skin HURTS when you walk outside. It means that your nose runs because you are about to die. It means that the air is "biting" you and it feels like 1,000 little knives being jabbed into you.
What I long for ...
(1) The smell of freshly cut grass. Budding trees.
(2) New flowers displayed at the garden center.
(3) The feel of dirt in my hands as I am planting some new flowers or vegetables.
(4) The feel of cool air (60 - 65 degrees) and warm sun. You know, out in the yard, planting something, a cool breeze, and warmth from the sun making it all seem like heaven on earth.
(5) Golf with my buddies.
(6) Bike rides with my girlfriend.
(7) Some other things I am not thinking about right now.
Okay, those are my lists. How about yours?
Hate:
1) The cold that you can't escape, even in a hot shower.
2) Nights that never end, except when the sun makes a brief appearance around lunch time. (I live in NY, so this is a minor exaggeration.)
3) Hitting the brakes and sliding for another fifty feet.
4) How running into a ten mph wind in January is like running with a parachute on while someone sprays ice particles at you.
Long for:
1) Being able to go for a leisurely walk outside that takes longer than it did for me to dress for it.
2) Freshly mowed grass.
3) Riding horses outside.
4) Sunshine BEFORE my alarm goes off.
5) The thing I long for the most, though, is being able to schedule some activity, and not have to wonder, "Will I feel good enough to do it?".
I also HATE snow and white and cold. In the cold my hands, face, ears, and feet go numb and don't get enough oxygenated blood to them and it is dangerous.
I long for nice and warm weather. Going into the pool. The sun! Getting dark at 8 pm.
Conversely then I love all the light and long days of spring and summer and the energy it brings me.
I love all four seasons, really.