I.
hate.
it.
I especially hate when my hands are cold...and my feet...and my face...and my ears. Ughhh. What REEEEALLY sucks is when those body parts are so cold that they hurt. It's the worst! I would much rather be sweating profusely than be so cold that it hurts.
I think part of that has to do with the fact that I grew up in a pretty mild climate down in Northeast Tennessee (please read that in a Southern accent and if you can't do one, I'll demo in person). I always tell my misinformed Yankee friends and family who think that the entirety of Tennessee is a scene from The Hills Have Eyes or that you will hear a creepy banjo playing if you go to a certain place, that TN aint all that bad. Sure our education system sucks (but so does the rest of America's if you compare it to Europe), sure it is in the heart of the Bible Belt which makes for some extremely judgmental and closed-minded people (although there are normal people too!), and sure my town is known primarily for a ginormous Nascar track (yes...the city is compensating for something...), but daaaaaaaaaamn we have good weather. We have normal, bearable seasons. It gets nice and hot in the summers, comfortable in the springs and falls, and cold enough in the winters. Of course we get things like snow, rain, thunderstorms, flooding, and tornadoes; but NONE of those weather events trend on the extreme side. The majority of the time, everything is manageable and not catastrophic. The weather rocks.
The only thing I hate more in Boston than Boston drivers (because you all suck...I love you...but you can't drive), is Boston winters. So last winter wasn't bad at all compared to the one before. (The one before was the one that welcomed me when I first moved up here and that resulted in a black eye...Snow Shovel: 1; Me: 0.)
But beyond the snow, IT'S COLD!!!!! I consider anything less than 45 degrees as cold...and you crazies up here are like, "ohhhh it's not negative 37 degrees so it's not cold at all, just put on a light jacket."
Shut up. I'm cold. and I don't like it. Thank goodness my boyfriend has the metabolism of a baby spider monkey and produces heat like a werewolf because basically, he has become my personal space heater. (I was looking for an animal to pick here and I picked spider monkey because he has crazy long arms like a monkey and he's hairy, and it reminds me of Talladega Nights which brings us back to Nascar. bam! full circle).
So now that I spent half the blog prepping the whole point of this blog, I guess I'll finally get to the point:
I get sad in the winter--I gots da Winter Blues. I like to be outside, but I can't go outside in the winter because my body hates the cold. My Winter Blues aren't severe, but there is a more severe version of what I feel. It's a real thing called Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD (is it bad that I find it amusing that the acronym is sad?)
According to WebMD, SAD is basically depression during the winter that is thought to be linked to your body's clock being "out of synch" and lack of enough direct sunlight.
Symptoms include: extreme fatigue, too much sleep, concentration problems, and weight gain.
Here are some ways to fix it without talking to your doc:
- Light therapy--Find a way to get direct light. "Dawn stimulation" is a pretty interesting technique.
- Don't watch depressing things...like the news
- Stay active and force yourself to keep moving
- Don't give in to the cravings for sweets and carbs.
- Confide in someone!
If none of these things work, consider consulting a doctor. There might be actual imbalances in your body that a doc can fix (i.e. melatonin deficiency or seratonin deficiency).
Here's to learning to find joy in the winter! We can do it!
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