Talking about Seasonal Affective Disorder : S.A.D for short or winter blues for even shorter.
Male mental health problems.
Many years ago in a northern city renowned for it’s mediocrity and dullness…..
It was grey, overcast and not quite raining but worse is that it was still the half light of a wet winter and I was trudging home after a difficult night – in charge on night duty in my first intensive care unit with poor staffing and sadly, several deaths that night. What made it worse was that i’d got into The Smiths as my Walkman soundtrack – although only very briefly. That combination of place and events marks it out as the mid 1980’s which I remember as some of the darkest, grimmest and hopeless days that i’d ever experienced.
That was something like thirty years ago and iv’e learnt a lot about self managing S.A.D. sine then. Iv’e had some bad years but also years when I didn’t really notice it at all : I generally didn’t get it when I was at sea nor did I get it when I was training hard which is one of the reasons why I thought that there was a physical element. My main lesson is that what helps most comes down to two or three things : spending time out of doors, eating and sleeping well and most of all having some form of mental engagement that kept my mind busy.
This year I have new problems to contend with but luckily I have enough experience to know, and be able to, keep it under control with simple measures : my daily walks help – even when it’s dull and grey. What I should be doing, right now, is being hard at work every day on my workshop project : that’s why my plan was always to have it as my winter and spring project but nothing is happening because the roofing materials still aren’t here and as I said before in other posts nothing can happen until the old roof is off and the new one is on : after that everything can happen but now it looks as though it will be spring or early summer until I have that work to occupy my mind with.
What iv’e done instead is started a project indoors that would have originally only started after the main fitting out is done : nothing special or major but iv’e begun work on my long term project of building my own minimum gauge model railway cum industrial diorama. In a way that sounds almost child like as a thing to spend my time doing but a large part of it is to give my fine finger control some much needed therapy : it’s also the main reason why i’m working in that size and scale and the mental engagement of having worked that out is part of it.
At a time when I seem to be surrounded by men’s mental health problems i’m wary about calling S.A.D. a true mental health problem : although it is regarded as such by some mental health professionals and given the label of reactive depression it is almost always transient and short lived. Yes, it can be miserable but even for me the first time I sit out in the early spring sunshine looking at the Daffodils (we’ve got some in bloom already) it’s usually gone.
I might be over thinking it but I have, kinda sorta. come up with my own model for the problem and I don’t think it’s only and all about the season. For sure there is a natural slump after Christmas when all of that season’s excitement ,over consumption and unrealistic expectations are past. It is also definitely the case that it is triggered (in most people) by a lack of sunlight – it’s worse in the Scandinavian countries for example. My own experience was that it was also a lot worse when I didn’t have hard physical training to fall back on and definitely when either my diet or sleep was lacking. Sleep became and increasingly worse problem in my last years as a specialist nurse and the continuous low grade stress at the same time definitely had an effect.
This year i’m mainly trying to stave it off or at least reduce it’s intensity, with a gradually increasing walking program and a slowly improving diet – mainly in the shape of an overall reduction in carbohydrates/extraneous sugar. We are both doing that as Jackie is watching her longer term blood sugar result (HbA1C) as it seems to be a bit raised due to her continuing low dose of steroids. Each month or so we’re both keen to see her blood results and i’m pleased to say that her CRP (C reactive protein) hasn’t spiked : that being one the most accurate ways of seeing if the inflammatory state is rising or getting slowly better. Jax happens to think that there might be a small link between sugar consumption and inflammation although if it is then it’s likely to be small. The great thing with reducing our sugar/carbs though is never going to be a lose and it will be interesting this year to see if I get any reduction in time or intensity of my regular bout of the winter blues.
Best wishes all
Dirty Wet Dog, the great adventure. 