Winter blues or S.A.D.? What my blogging stats tell me.

 

 

I’ve provided a soundtrack for this post to put you in the mood!

 

 

 

I’ve been having a look at my stats and as you can see there is a definite pattern. My last post was in October and my blog has just been ticking over for the last few months. this is because although I haven’t felt like writing , I have been reading and liking posts on blogs that I’ve been following.

The reason that I haven’t been writing is that I haven’t felt that I had anything to offer. I try not to do ‘misery blogging’, you know the type I mean, especially if you are an empathetic kind of person, those posts that make you sad or depressed. I haven’t felt that I had anything interesting to post about.

Recently, I started to feel better and had a look at my blog stats and was surprised to see the pattern they showed. Now I am wondering if , like many Brits I have been suffering from winter blues.

Evidence:

I hate being cold. Any thing below 20 degrees and I’m miserable.

I hate wearing loads of clothes. I’m definitely a shorts and sandals girl. My feet hate boots.

I am a morning person and who wants to get up early when it’s cold and dark.? In my part of the U.K. we only have daylight in winter between 08.00 and  15.30. We spend most of our lives in the dark or under artificial light.

I feel less confident in winter and seem to be less creative.

So , tell me. Does climate affect your creativity. Do you respond differently to the changing seasons. How do you combat the winter blues? I am looking forward to hearing your story.

http://youtu.be/MtbeAc1NCjU

 

SAD is sometimes known as “winter depression” because the symptoms are more apparent and tend to be more severe at this time of the year.
The symptoms often begin in the autumn as the days start getting shorter. They’re most severe during December, January and February.
In most cases the symptoms of SAD begin to improve in the spring before eventually disappearing.
Many Britons become depressed in winter and suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), or have low spirits or “the winter blues” during the winter months.
Most scientists believe that the problem is related to the way the body responds to daylight. ….“It’s thought that SAD sufferers are affected by shorter daylight hours in the winter. They produce higher melatonin, causing lethargy and symptoms of depression.”

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/seasonal-affective-disorder

According to Dictionary.com—

Summer is “a period of fruition, fulfillment, happiness, or beauty.”
Winter is “a period of time characterized by coldness, misery, barrenness, or death.”

That seems to sum it up really. In the article below, the following symptoms of seasonal affective disorder are identified.

http://psychcentral.com/lib/10-things-you-dont-know-about-seasonal-affective-disorder/0002

http://www.babble.com
image-3072

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 APA Reference
Blaszczak, J. (2005). 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Seasonal Affective Disorder. Psych Central. Retrieved on March 29, 2015, from http://psychcentral.com/lib/10-things-you-dont-know-about-seasonal-affective-disorder/0002

http://www.dcoe.mil/blog/12-10-25/Frontline_Psych_with_Doc_Bender_The_Reality_of_Depression.aspx