The early winter has a remarkable effect on me. I feel more tired, less excited by normal activities, and less likely to seek out or attend social activities. I often feel downright miserable. Many others also feel similarly — these are common characteristics of Seasonal Affective Disorder. Six percent of the US population experiences SAD, and an additional fourteen percent of the US population experiences a milder form of SAD. I certainly fall into the former category, and every year when the days get shorter and darker, I struggle. When I took a semester abroad in Australia, I foolishly went for the fall semester. This caused me to have to experience early winter three semesters in a row, which was, in retrospect, a poor decision for my psychological health.
As SAD is quite easy to predict (by definition), I’ve figured out my defenses against it, and they’ve held rather well against its onslaught. Treating SAD is not difficult, but it does require preparation. Due to the nature of the early winter months’ effect on my cognition, it’s critical for me to approach the season with a plan, before it gets too dark. The reversion from Daylight Savings Time is usually the big push that takes me from “feeling okay” to “feeling awful”. But as mentioned, preparation and treatment do wonders. Regularly using a full-spectrum light as light therapy is the primary and most effective form of treatment. Also, exercising about five times as much as usual keeps me in a doped-up-by-endorphins state that also keeps the blues away. As a bonus, it gets me in shape. And if I still feel bad after all that, I code, getting myself so involved with a project that I’m too busy to think about how awful I feel. Mystery Twitter came from the early winter months, born of three days of post-finals, shut-in misery, sublimated into an amusing, un-hideous application written in a language that at the time was new to me. It’s harder to wallow in misery when CSS is broken.
If you find yourself feeling worse than usual in the early winter months, you’re in good company, and there are highly effective solutions. Primarily, get yourself a full spectrum light. I could not afford to pay the value of the therapy it has provided me, were that therapy provided by a therapist. Also, do every trick in the book to get yourself doing some sort of exercise. Breaking the downward spiral into winter depression must be approached with purpose and prejudice. The twin cannons of light and exercise have improved my life immensely, and Wikipedia tells me that I’m not special — they help most people. If you think you may need it, give it a shot, and do whatever else helps. SAD is a thing. It will happen every year. Moving to the southern hemisphere for a few months every year is tempting, but not a reasonable course of action for most folks. Take care of yourself! Trust me, it’s awesome.