Body & Soul - The Winter Blues

The Winter Blues by Sarah Ryder
It’s pitch black by six, daylight savings is a distant dream and you’ve hauled out the heater. There are good things about winter, but getting out of bed on cold mornings and massive power bills aren’t among them. For many people winter is the hardest to love of the four seasons. And for some, the onset can bring on the blues.

Seasonal Affective Disorder with its appropriate acronym ‘SAD’ might sound like one of those Clayton’s illnesses … I mean, saying you’re suffering from SAD is never going to garner you the same amount of sympathy as cancer say, or leprosy. But it’s a real, recognised condition characterised by symptoms that come and go with the seasons. Usually, SAD symptoms appear during late autumn or early winter and go away during the spring and summer. However a smaller number of people have the opposite pattern. In either case, problems may start out mild and become more severe as the season progresses.

Symptoms of winter-onset SAD include: depression, anxiety, loss of energy, social withdrawal, hopelessness, oversleeping, loss of interest in activities you once enjoyed, appetite changes – especially a craving for foods high in carbohydrates, weight gain, and difficulty concentrating and processing information. Reading the list brings to mind an animal going into winter hibernation mode.

The specific causes of SAD remain unknown. It’s likely, as with many mental health conditions, that genetics, age, and your body’s natural chemicals all play a part. It is thought that people with SAD may produce too much melatonin, which disrupts the internal body clock and leads to depressive symptoms.

If you’re feeling SAD, don’t dismiss it as simply a case of the ’winter blues’. Treatment includes light therapy (phototherapy), psychotherapy, and medications. Addressing the problem can help you keep your mood and motivation steady throughout the year.

And to help myself stave off the SAD, I’m focussing on some of the good things about winter:

1) Red wine – I never feel like drinking red wine in summer, but when it’s cold outside, red wine just feels warming, delicious, and right;
2) Snow – skiing, snowboarding, and coming soon to a mountain near you; and
3) Stodgy comfort food – mashed potato, casserole, and custard … here we come.

OK, am struggling. Have just realised that two of the items on the above list can also be symptoms for SAD (cravings for stodgy food and alcohol). I keep wanting to write down ‘sitting in front of a roaring fire’, but I don’t have one. I’ve a gas heater. And when I hear it roaring, I think about my gas bill. But I’m sure there are others. Maybe:

4) Winter clothes – big sexy boots, beautiful coats, woolly scarves, and hats;
5) The fact it’s really dark at night and you might be able to see the stars (if it wasn’t so smoky from everyone else’s big roaring fires);
6) Weeds in the garden don’t grow as quickly;
7) Electric blankets;
8) The fact you know spring is to follow;
9) The days are still sunny. Cold. But sunny; and
10) … Ummm …

Well why do lists always need to consist of ‘10 things’ anyway? What’s wrong with a list of the nine best things about winter? Definitely feeling better after writing that list. Yep. Pass the lightbox.