Banishing the mid-winter blues

February 1st. A chilly, grey and drizzly day outside. My SAD (seasonal affective disorder) credentials are kicking in - depressed, lethargic, overeating, irritable, feeling down and unsociable. The NHS website tries to be helpful and suggests these 10 steps to redemption: Keep Active, Get Outside, Keep Warm, Eat Healthily, See The Light, Take Up A New Hobby, See Friends and Family, Talk It Through, Join a Support Group, Seek Help... some of these do seem a bit drastic. I'm just fed up with the lack of daylight and the weather, I'm not living in Aleppo! I am following most of these suggestions already (if eating an apple directly after finishing a packet of biscuits counts as eating healthily that is). No, winter cannot hurry up enough and turn into spring as far as I'm concerned.

Winter does, admittedly, have its own charm and it would take an emotionally bankrupt individual to not take joy from a heavy frost, Redwings and Fieldfares, er... Redwings and Fieldfares... did I mention them already? No, I've run out of positives, which leaves me with thoughts based around freezing cold hands and feet, gloopy mud, dirty puddles, dark mornings, dark afternoons, lack of bird song, dead vegetation, bare trees... no, I've definitely lost all of that positivity.

But there are bright lights on the horizon. There really are. They may be just eggs, chrysalis, seeds or even flitting around an African savannah right now, but they are merely biding their time before coming to say hello. They look a bit like this...




Comments

Derek Faulkner said…
I can identify with all those symptoms Steve, had them for years, I'm a summer person. Walking round the reserve this morning in drizzle, mud and gloom was really hard to bear.
1 February 2017 at 13:41
Simon Douglas Thompson said…
First brimstone mental sweepstake is on. I will go for March 13th this year
1 February 2017 at 13:47
Gibster said…
I'm probably 300 miles north of my nearest Brimstone. I didn't have SAD but, thanks to Simon, I now do :(
1 February 2017 at 19:20
Gibster said…
Holy crap, and I'm light years away from Adonis Blues.
1 February 2017 at 19:22
Steve Gale said…
Sometimes it's hard to actually step outside, isn't it Derek?
1 February 2017 at 21:04
Steve Gale said…
I'll plump for March 6th then.
1 February 2017 at 21:05
Steve Gale said…
Yeah, but a lot closer to a Chequered Skipper...
1 February 2017 at 21:06
Gavin Haig said…
Working outdoors in winter can be pretty wearing, but the upside is instant awareness of the first signs of spring. Last week I could hear a Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming nearby, and yesterday a Mistle Thrush was in full (if repetitive!) song. It won't be long Steve...
2 February 2017 at 10:38
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