Winter blues

.

When you wake up, have you ever felt like pulling the duvet back over your head and thinking wake me up next year?

Each day is a struggle to wake up. You just want to keep your eyes firmly closed and you want to block out life and sleep through it. Facing each new day is difficult when your experiencing this. It all began happening to me during the winter months. It started one morning and then it went on for a whole week, and then I could not shift it. I had such low moods in the morning. It was unbearable. I remember waking up to turn off my alarm at 10.30am one Saturday and I was unable to face the day or life itself. I shut the world out. It was too difficult to face anything. I had that eerie feeling in my stomach. I just could not deal with a new day. I had so much plans booked. I let a lot of people down. I just felt like withdrawing from everything and everyone. It was nothing personal. I just could not face anything. My mood had dipped I was no longer this happy person I used to be.

The real name for the winter blues is seasonal affective disorder. SAD. The lack of light, more shorter dark days can have extreme effects on our moods.

There is a light box one can get and surround themselves with that gives off a bright light, to treat SAD.

For me I was sleeping more than I normally did and I was feeling lethargic.

In winter you naturally want to hibernate and withdraw from others since it so cold. But we don't all have those luxuries. Most have to go out to work. And if you don't work you still have your day to day tasks and activities you have to get on with. As SAD is associated with less exposure to daylight, it would make sense to get up and get out before it gets dark and get as much daylight as possible. What's necessary is the more serotonin. We have less of this hormone in dark months where there is a lack of daylight. This hormone is linked with sleep and mood and appetite, so with less of it we tend to feel more depressed.

The hormone Melatonin is what makes us tired and there's known to be more of this hormone in people with SAD.

This would explain why I was always feeling so tired and depressed particularly in the morning.

But eating well and having a good healthy diet and having a clear goal first thing when you get up is certainly going to get you going. Or some kind of morning routine.

My morning routine is usually about putting God first and making him the first part of my day.

Reading the bible, praying and watching my favourite Godly speaker or video on you tube helps to set me off on a good start for the day.

And it's getting up for God getting up to do something meaningful of purpose. Not just for myself but for someone else. Whether it is the same for you, or not having a clear goal helps.

Psychologist Paul Gilbert talks about goals in his book Overcoming Depression. He says that when we have to do things we don't want to do, we need to not focus on the difficulties but instead on the benefits and how we will feel when we have finished the task. Even to picture it in our minds and seeing ourselves and how great we will feel when we have achieved it.

Maybe you feel worried about going for a walk in the cold, or not looking forward to doing the morning routine of the school run. Or it could be visiting a friend. Picturing yourself sitting laughing and having coffee with your friend may get you motivated. Seeing how happy you will be and feel will make all the difference. That vision and creating one is what Paul Gilbert is referring to. He also states its important to have a goal and commit to focusing on the outcome and the benefits as suggested previously. Focus on how good you will feel once you have achieved the goal.

He talks about getting up out of bed and doing things, as lying in bed going over your problems will only make you feel even more terrible and the problem seem greater. It's about getting out of bed and doing things. Paul Gilbert states that getting out of bed means that your moving further towards your goal which is that of recovery.

I don't want to get into the habit of pulling the covers back over my head and not getting up for good. I want to break out of the depression as hard as it is. I must set a goal in the morning if it's to go for a walk while it is still daylight and have a Godly morning routine. Either way I need to get out of bed even if it is just to watch morning TV, or a comedy. Or listen to an inspiring podcast or make myself a healthy breakfast. Or to study. The idea is to stay active and inject a bit of fun into my days and not isolate myself and to meet others especially friends. Sometimes we are so busy doing things for others or errands we forget about putting ourselves first or forget to even have some fun. It could be listening to some unbeat music or having a giggle over the phone with a friend. Going out to the cinema or to a concert or a walk with someone we enjoy spending time with.

Then we find if we do these things then we will get out the habit of being affeced by SAD and get closer to our goal of recovery not away from it. After all our recovery goal is to beat the winter blues once and for all.