I'm very sorry you have such a winter. I said before that it would be hard for me to live in Seattle. I loose all my energy without sun.
I agree with you in all 4 advices.
I don't know why I'm not very fond of eating. Not a eating disorder but I don't see the pleasure that most people have with food. But for the last three months I'm eating healthy and even without feeling hungry. I've noticed that it makes a lot of difference.
I love to sleep and without sleeping, especially when you're 49, it's like having a hangover.
Get outside! Cannot spend one day without going out and talking to people (socializing) and it does miracles.
I'm trying to avoid spending too much time on the computer.
I'm having problems with my back and it's quite stressful being online. You must not be believing because of the amount of comments I leave here in FS.
Mental health is the sole reason why I keep on online lately.
Stop worrying?
I've spend 20 years on therapy to try to stop worrying. lol
It has helped me a lot because I had the fortune of finding a very good psychoanalyst.
But from time to time fear the bad, fear not the good one that prevent you from doing your harm, tries to take control.
I have to fight it.
I hope you find a way to overcome the lack of sun.

Good common sense tips, Philip. My biggest weapon against depression is to have projects on the go all the time. Writing something, researching something or even just organizing a closet works. Depression is awful so it's good to be aware this can be a tough time of year. I'm been depressed both on and off meds and I've come to the conclusion that they're pretty irrelevant.

RE:"The second thing is you've got to sleep"
Thinking about the want-need of sleep in my opinion can bring on insomnia, but yes we need a healthy amount of sleep.
Our bodies have to be physically tired for sleep to be possible, so I recommend enjoyable exercise of some kind. Walking or biking, during the day, like Philip says. If you exercise too close to bedtime it will have antisleep properties, so don't do that.
A second "side effect" of exercise is that it will likely make you feel hungry (later in the day), from the energy you have expended. Don't drink/eat high sugar products for this hunger.

I have the opposite problem. I manage my depression much better in the fall & winter months. I've always been more of a night person (since teen years, at least) and tend to avoid daylight/sunlight as much as I can. One base reason that I suspect causes me to have this preference is I am highly susceptible to migraines and light can be a big trigger for me. I dread late spring and summer and have found I tend to adjust my sleep schedule according to the season. During the sunnier seasons I tend to go to bed around the time the sun rises. Other months I drift more toward the 3-4am time frame.

Something interesting came out in my many years of therapy. My sleep schedule changed while I was on the hamster-wheel of psych drugs (2001 thru 2006). Or rather, it didn't change. Pretty much year round I was on more of a "day" schedule and did not adjust for the seasons like I did before all the drugs (and have since gone back to doing). And, as many might relate to, my difficulty in managing my depression and/or mania became impossible while I was on the psych drugs.

I haven't been on any psych drugs since Thanksgiving of 2006. That next spring I started adjusting my sleep schedule, without even thinking about it. And I have been able to weather my extreme highs or lows much easier now. Not sure whether they have evened out or become less extreme OR whether I am just getting better at heading them off at the pass.

I remember you talking previously about one's increased ability to "deal" with things as one ages. I agreed with you about that and felt that should be a topic of discussion at some of these Psych/Therapist conventions and/or training.

SallyT

Good advice, especially the bit about getting out and about, and eating and drinking, and sleeping and visiting people.

sally, I am the same way. Spring and Summer are the worst time, for some reason I love Fall and Winter. I am such a snow bunny!

These steps are crucial and the reason I have been able to maintain under severe pressure. Eating, hydration, sleep, and getting outside and being consistent has helped me remain calm(er)and be on less meds, during several life-changing crises these tips are proven to work by me!(still working on letting go of worry, but that's where the walking pays off, to clear the mind).

Thanks for the tips and I hope the winter and autumn are easy for you Philip.

What a gloriously sunny day it is in Seattle today that's for sure! Enjoy it!

I simply cannot believe how long it's taken me to grasp the simple principle that I feel better when I eat better. We've been doing Weight Watchers for five years now. When I reached my goal weight I switched to what they call the Core Plan. It's basically whole grains, lots of fruits and veggies and protein, enough non-fat dairy to get your calcium. Within the first week on this regimen I realized I felt better than I could ever remember! I wasn't expecting that.

It's easy for me to kid myself that I'm eating fewer of the non-core items than I really am so I have to watch it. I slide into the mud so easily. This is especially true in this "civilized" culture where we get so many non-food items masquerading as food shoved in our faces. One thing that's helped us is becoming committed to eating as many local foods as possible. Cuts way down on the non-food "food".

Reading the comments here, I'm going to try to focus this year on this staying in the moment business. It's about the only cure for what ails me, but certainly doesn't come naturally for me. I have an anniversary reaction to supplement the loss of light. And, I suspect, Vitamin D. (When I was growing up part of good baby care was to take your infant's clothes off and park him/her in the pram on the porch, hallway or wherever you found a nice patch of sunlight for a fifteen minute daily sunbath to get some Vitamin D.)

Thanks for getting us thinking and talking about this, Philip. By the way, Burlington, VT actually has less sunshine that Seattle. I always find this fact amazing. They get all the clouds from Lake Champlain. Like Seattle, it's a beautiful city with a lousy climate.

Sherry (back from the woods, off to the library)

Dear Philip:

I'm also one of those loves the cloudy rainy day type of feel good personas; So I think I will move to Seattle and park my shopping cart outside your apartment building for the fall/winter {laughing}. Don't worry, I won't bug you for spare change or ask to use your bathroom much; the walls of your building can be quite useful in those biological endeavors {smirk}. Dang, I just had another blank moment, must be that brain shrinkage again; sure hope this shrinkage doesn't fly south for the fall/winter {blushing}.

Anywise, no matter what this fall or winter throws your way Philip, just know that so many of us here send sunshine through our beating hearts to you each day for the fine work and effort you put forth here @ Furious Seasons.

Yours truly
Stan

I kind of agree with SallyT that besides all these great tips, and I support them wholeheartedly, there's also nothing like just getting a bit older and the passage of time. Whether it's hormones finally settling down a bit or just a different perspective on life, it seems to make a difference in the trajectory of mood disorders for a lot of people if they just let it.

Good list. Food might BE gruel when things are tough.

I add a couple hacks to your basics when I talk to folks who are fighting with the sickness.

a. Recognize your daily alcohol and drug use is probably not helping end your depression.

b. Find useful work to do just for today. It doesn't matter what this is. If there's a community garden, go find the hoe. If there's litter on the sidewalk out front of your apartment, go pick it up. Go sweep the parking lot at the AA club.

c. This might not be possible for everyone, but physical contact with other humans is a magical curative. The more the better.

d. Specifically define in your own mind at which point it's time to give up and both accept and FOLLOW someone else's advice. Write this situation down, like, I don't get out of bed for 24 hours when I am not physically ill, I lose my job, I miss an important family event, I don't have any food to eat in the house, I cry when watching TV commercials. Don't define the help you will follow - define when you give yourself permission to get help.

thanks for this.

All of those are tips I know, from experience and from many different people pushing me to do them. But it's extraordinary how difficult things like food and sleep can become, and how quickly things can get there. For me, this has gotten worse over time, even though my lows aren't all as low as back at the beginning. When I was 14, "trouble sleeping" was being up til 3 or 4 at the latest, and my issues with food were practically non-existent... I might eat a bit less with dinner, and maybe skip lunch every once in awhile. These days, when it's bad, I often forget to eat entirely, and full nights with no sleep or a few very frequently interrupted hours are common.

The worst part of this time of year for me is that fall used to be my favorite season, back before my depression started. I love the crispness in the air, September is my birthday, I was one of those weird kids that LIKED school starting... and my depression has stolen that from me. I also am a night person, I like storms and curling up with a book on rainy days. But I can't indulge those things too much, because I know I need the activity and the sunlight.

Riding my bike home from class, I enjoy the rush of breaking through cool air, and I think... "Remember when it always felt this good? Maybe I'll have that again someday. Maybe."

kc, I can so relate to: "But it's extraordinary how difficult things like food and sleep can become, and how quickly things can get there."

I wouldn't want anyone to think that my knowledge about eating better means I think it's easy. And sleep...it's both a cause and symptom of depression for so many of us. Something upsetting happened yesterday and I was awake until 3:00 am last night, have to work today. You can bet sleep will be a priority tonight--no caffeine, take a walk today (but not too late in the day), eat properly (binged yesterday in response to my situation), etc. The good news is I don't seem to be picking at my mental scab this morning.

I've decided to pick one area to focus on this winter. And to try to remember to NOT beat up on myself if I lose that focus after some months of shoveling snow and freezing my butt off. None of us need anything new to beat up on about ourselves, so I do hope we all remember to be gentle with ourselves in this coming winter.

Philip,
I'll be sending sunshines through my beating heart to you.
But please, be careful with your front door. These cloudy rainy days types... be careful. {laughing}

Stan,
I've already told you: Uruguay!

Wow, I was much impressed with your vast array of healing actions. Suffering from depression and neuroses since I was a teen (now 46) none of current antidepressants has helped for very long. A veritable merry-go-round for almost 12 yrs has left me feeling hopeless. What I thought was SAD has come to mean that it only gets worse during the winter times. Sad to say, I moved to Oregon,where the overcast skies begin in November and continue to May.Sorry for being a downer, thanks for writing. Andy in Salem

Excellent, timely post (I've been wondering why I'm so tired and blah lately and now, after reading your post, I'm remembering how I'm walking to work in the dark lately).

Just one question: Do you think that socializing still helps if the depressive is an introvert, i.e. someone for whom being around other people drains them?