Combating the Wintertime Blues
by The components that make up a winter day add up to feelings of sadness and emptiness – things such as short gray days, long cold nights, fuel bills, whining kids, lonely empty rooms, and more. Here are a few helpful tips to keep winter outside where it belongs and kick the depression.
Winter doldrums-everyone gets them at one time or another. The skies are gray, the air is cold, the fuel bills sky-rocket and people are grumpy. Single people have fewer opportunities to get out and mingle; families are shut into small spaces getting on each other’s nerves.
So what can you do to keep the malaise at bay?
First of all, don’t self-diagnose. Unless your mood of unhappiness persists over an extended period of time, you are probably experiencing normal everyday wintertime blahs. If the feeling persists or if it seems unbearably strong, seek help. Talk to your minister, call a depression hotline, schedule an appointment with a counseling professional. Sorrow may be the birthright of humankind, but no one has to live in a valley of perpetual despair.
Second, seek company. Go mall-walking, play an online game, call a friend, visit friends or relatives. Humans are social beasts. Even the most dedicated hermit needs a visitor now and then.
Third, pet an animal. Animal companions help fill that need for company. Having a pet forces the human half of that companionship to tend to needs of the four-footed (or two and winged, or finned as the case may be) home member. While cleaning containers or litter boxes, feeding and watering may not be exciting, they do force physical movement. Cuddling and stroking the critter eases tension and triggers more positive emotions. Animal friends are good listeners, too.
Fourth, keep a diary. All those thoughts that keep running around in your head that seem so important today may be trivial when read tomorrow. However, writing them down gives them somewhere to go.
Five, check the light levels in your house. Add sun-lamps or natural light fluorescents if possible. The shorter days, longer nights that occur during winter signal our system to shut down and sleep for longer periods of time.
Six, reality check: do you have a real reason to feel sad? Unhappiness comes in a lot of different packages. Heavy burdens of debt, over-work, lack of sleep, grief for death of a loved one, disappointment over a hoped-for life change that didn’t go as planned, distance from the people you love-these are all reasonable causes for feeling less than chipper. Take a look at the reasons, determine which ones can be helped or changed, understand that some will never quite go away but that time will dim the sharpness and make remembering/feeling easier to bear.
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