Winter Blues?

It's so understandable. You look up at yet another overcast day: wherever you look the grey leaden skies stretch all the way to the horizon. Just like yesterday, and the day before. It's cold. It's damp. Winter just keeps hanging on and on and on. Will the sun ever appear?? Does this sound familiar? Do you feel depressed in the winter? Have you been “diagnosed” with the medical condition “seasonal affective disorder?” If you ask your friends and family if ‘anyone else feels down when the weather was poor?’ would you be surprised is a common response is “massively"?

Family doctors expect to see people with low mood in the winter. I totally understand the temptation to label winter-induced gloom as a medical condition. Just like when they put "Taloia" on sick notes — which UK doctors allegedly did when they couldn’t be bothered to precisely ascertain the nature of widespread sniffles (TALOIA='There's a lot of it about!'). 

We all agree we feel better when the sun is shining brightly on a warm summer’s day. But isn't that like saying we feel more alive and more energised when we're awake, compared to when we're asleep? 

It's no surprise many people believe their lives are largely influenced by external events and other people, and they may even admit to feeling helpless to resist these external influences. One person can see a gloomy day and feel down, and another standing alongside sees the same view and feels fine. No doubt they both FEEL differently. So how can the difference be due to a medical "disorder"? If you believe you are going to have a dire day because of the weather, is it really a debilitating illness? 

Or ... is it due to the way we process information? If you read a horoscope and it says, "Don't travel today!” would you stay indoors? Some would. They might 'find a real excuse' not to travel, rather than admit their behaviour depends on a cue from what they read. And more than a few people believe that their life is indeed externally influenced.

Ten year ago, I used to think I suffered from SAD. I went to my GP and was given medication. I bought a natural light box. I promised myself I would leave the UK so I never ever had to experience another wet, foggy, dark, grey, damp, miserable, November. I really believed with every fibre of my being that I was suffering from an illness. I wasn't. I now know I was living my life in response to external influences I implicitly accepted without question. I felt low, so I went to the GP for a pharmacological "fix". And because it is easier for a busy doctor to generate a prescription for anti-depressants, that was my 'treatment'. Next!

I really do understand that it is so natural to blame the weather for how we feel. And if that's the choice we make, then that's ok too. We have that option. However, the evidence that our belief is probably non-existent. 

Instead, it IS possible to question our cherished beliefs, and we can — if we chose to — learn how to process how we see the outside world and our place in it. If we do that we soon begin to realise inner happiness doesn't depend on the weather outside, what the horoscope says, status symbols or material possessions. And that we can be happier inside simply because we decide that is how it will be. We CAN set out to have a great day, even though it's dull, raining and misty and cold outside. Like it was yesterday where I live. I togged up and enjoyed a great walk with the dogs. Because I chose to. There was a time when I would take one look at the dawn of a grey day and dived under the duvet. Not any more. I decided I would do what it took to have a great day, no matter what the weather was like. I recall a great quote from comedian Billy Connolly: "there is no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes!" 

But — I hear you cry — doctors have declared winter blues to be an actual  medical condition. They have even named it: “Seasonal Affective Disorder.”  It’s been widely accepted for decades!!However, science shows otherwise. The British Psychological Society has in recent years, criticised the "medical label" of depression and associated disorders: “it was unhelpful to see mental health issues as illnesses with biological causes…. On the contrary, there is now overwhelming evidence that people break down as a result of a complex mix of social and psychological circumstances.” 

So how valid is the concept of Seasonal Affective Disorder? A major US study in 2016 “to determine the actual extent to which depression changes with the seasons" reported that depression was not correlated with season, sunlight or latitude. While it was recognised that there is widespread "folk psychology" that SAD exists in the minds of many, the results showed no seasonal factor in the incidence of major depression. These findings supported an earlier Norwegian study of 8951 adults living in above the Arctic circle, in Tromsø, North Norway, where winter is obviously more prolonged. Although insomnia was correlated with winter, mental distress was not.  

But established beliefs often hang on longer that a seemingly permanent winter; our beliefs and thought patterns can be so ingrained we don't even question them. However, if we start to think about how we think about things, we can gradually chip away at deeply held cherished beliefs — and shift away from letting a horoscope determine our behaviour. Or let a gloomy day lower our mood. We can. If we choose to. 

Or we can, as an alternative, continue to hang onto what seems a convenient label. But  do you need to believe in labels to make you feel better? And the really interesting thing is that you don’t need to actually believe anything, or take one side or the other. You can, instead, just decide to make today a great day whether the sun is shining or not — and see for yourself what happens. If you chose to...