I certainly consider lethargy, melancholy and intense desires to sleep and to pile on the carbs to be natural parts of the season. I wonder if our ancestors didn’t do exactly that, sleep and eat their way through the winter months. We now have to keep going, keep working, studying, at a constant pace, as if our deep biological rhythms had adjusted to keep up with the society we now live in. Unfortunately, they haven’t.
It feels different from the September Blues. They were mainly in my head. I knew that a change was coming, and I was trying to keep up with the preparations, get ahead of it, take control of it. This feels more difficult, my body has to actually move through the changes, the cold, the viruses, the fires, the new rhythms and the ever increasing darkness. At the same time it feels less speedy and mind-driven, and more authentic. In fact it is only the other side of the coin…
September Blues — it’s the end of the holidays. Fear of change sets in, fear of losing ourselves once more in the everyday routine. What can we do about it?
With the clocks going back an hour on Sunday 29 October, the Mental Health Foundation is encouraging people to eat healthily and exercise regularly to ward off the symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). Every year, 1 in 50 people in the UK suffers from SAD, although many do not realise it.
New research suggests that cognitive behavioural therapy may offer longer-lasting relief from the symptoms of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) than traditional light box therapy.
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