Or was (temporarily) moving south the only solution for you?
This is what I already do, but I still feel lifeless and I don’t feel comfortable when I’m outside during the day (the bleak muddy environment + unpleasant damp air)
* Vitamin D3 supplements
* Omega 3 supplements
* Multivitamins
* Eating lots of veggies and whole foods
* Limit processed foods
* Stopped drinking coffee (wasn’t good for my gut)
* Exercise regularly (my gym has a workaround during lockdown)
* Getting enough sleep (8 – 9 hrs)
* SSRI meds
* Recently went on holiday south
* Light therapy in the AM
* Playing vidya
40 comments
What was surprisingly helpful for me was that I started taking cod liver oil. I also use a wake up light to wake up more naturally while it’s still dark out
It’s never really bothered me. In our case the main difference between summer and winter is the substantially different amounts of daylight, the weather isn’t all that different all things considered!
I have actually started taking vitamin D this year as an experiment, and also as I’m now mostly working inside (doing the same job), rather than a roughly 50/50 mix like I’ve done before.
If you tend to feel really bad in Winter, it’s worth getting your Vitamin D levels checked at the doctor. Although it seems you’re taking supplements, you could need a bigger dose if you’re deficient. When I was deficient, I was put on a massive dose well above the usual RDA until my levels were back to normal. I felt really ‘bleurgh’ all the time when I was low.
Bad weather has never bothered me that much, I deal with it a lot better than hot weather! I am really conscious of making the most daylight hours and any sunny spells and getting outside for a walk or a run, good outdoor clothes helps deal with the elements. I also tend to like Winter fashion over Summer clothes.
I do think Jan/Feb is a good time of year to go on holiday as well.
Edit: oh and one of the best things I did was take up sea swimming which a lot of people in Ireland did over COVID and do it through Winter. Personally I’m a wimp and wear a wetsuit but it’s still just very invigorating or something to get into the freezing sea. People find it good for their mental health.
I take cod liver oil since I was a child. But I actually _like_ the winter, so… maybe I’m not the one to ask.
It’s not that bad even further north, honestly. It does get even more dark, but there is also a lot of snow that bounces light very effectively.
I don’t know, I don’t really do anything differently. It is not winter that bothers me, it’s spring, when the snow melts and it reveals all the death autumn left behind.
I enjoy it. I like summer too, but I don’t spend the winter wishing it was July. Just close the curtains, light some candles and enjoy the night. Some things just work better in the dark. Certain foods, certain books, whole genres of music. And winter clothes are better, too. (I’m one of those pale people with dark hair – summer clothes look ridiculous on me).
All I do do is take extra vitamin D3 and now that I’m working from home I usually go outside whenever the sun shows itself.
I absolutely hate the winter though, if I would have the financial means I would be somewhere down south from October through February.
I just don’t go out. I am trying to avoid daylight anyway.
I don’t mind it, my house isn’t roasting hot and there’s no pesky sun glare on my pc screen.
Running outside. And everything you mentioned, aside from the holiday south and vidya.
For omega-3 I just spread omega-3-rich butter on my bread.
What is SSRI?
I suffer in the short grey days and can become very depressed, my coping strategy is:
Vitamin D supplements
Eating Bananas
Going to the gym
Trying to get out and hike at the weekend but I live in a part of the UK that is thick muddy clay not rocky so it can be hard to find somewhere to hike that doesn’t end up with me carrying several kilos of mud on my boots or slipping over!
Trying to organise my work schedule flexibly enough to have outside jobs when the sun does shine
Trying to organise a couple of weeks snowboarding in the Alps, once in Jan and once in March, I had a very low patch this year when the government prevented us from that, I think spending a week with bright sun being reflected off snow does a lot for my serotonin levels.
Skiing.
Seriously, the city is always in the mist or clouds and when you get to 1000+ meters, omg, bluebird weather.
I don’t think Nordic people can help you out all that much tbh. This is more of a south-north problem than a north-north problem. In the Nordics we know not to rely on the sun for anything, as there’s absolutely no consistency throughout the year when it comes to sunsets and sunrises. Whereas further south you at least have consistency for much of the year, so it’s far easier to know what you’re missing out on when winter comes around. The vast amount of Nordics have no clue what consistent sunrises/sunsets feels like, so we cope with winter darkness far easier than you guys.
When I first moved to Germany people would ask me all the time how the hell I coped with winter darkness, a question I never understood at first. It wasn’t until a few weeks into my first period in Germany I started to get a sense of what living with reliable light actually felt like, and it was a total gamechanger for me. When I came back to Norway the only thing that worked for me was getting back into the “Nordic mindset” of dissociating the sun with daily life. Idk if I would have been able to do this further south though, as the sun itself does most of the work. For example, a few days ago it was pitch black at 15:00 and yesterday it was still light at 17:00, the dissociation comes naturally when you live here.
So yeah, in the Nordics we go about our daily life because for us daylight has little to do with day. It’s easier said than done though coming from a Nordic person. We also eat fish/cod liver oil but assume you know all about that already.
I get my Vitamin D levels checked every year in November & take supplements throughout the winter if it’s low.
(I wouldn’t just take Vitamin D supplements without knowing that you are actually deficient, because it can increase your calcium levels.. which is probably worse than just slightly low Vitamin D levels)
I don’t feel any difference whether it’s June or December, I’m lifeless all the time.
I do the following:
– vitamin D supplements
– regular exercise and sleep
– focusing on hobbies that keep me indoors (art, music, learning new languages, reading) – bonus points if I can have a blanket and a cup of tea with them
– trying to keep to a routine so that I still have rhythm to my day
I know it doesn’t help but I envy your weather over there. Much better than having a scorching sun for what-used-to-be-3-months-a-year-but-recently-is-more-like-7-or-8, and not being able to walk outside more than 5 minutes without becoming a human soup.
I go to work when it’s dark, I leave work when it’s dark, so I mostly don’t notice the gray days
Didn’t know the winter months caused such a problem to people living in Northern and North western Europe, sorry to hear that. If it is any consolation, our winter months can get very cold.
It doesn’t really bother me, especially now I work from home. Jan/Feb/Mar can be lovely months in Finland. Snow, bright blue sky, sunshine. Everything is crisp outside, then you go home and put the sauna on and drink a beer. November is the worst month as down south, we tend not to get snow and it’s dark. But yeah, I like winter.
Suicide? That seems popular in that region. That or heavy drinking.
Never really had a problem, or had to take supplements. I live fairly far south though, so no eternal nights in winter.
I don’t mind those days at all. Winter best time of the year.
It’s fairly similar in my part of the states but for me just trying to stay active helps. I know it’s not reallt an option in northwestern Europe but I try and ski as much as a can
Can’t relate to that at all. This is normal weather and I prefer it to melting in 35 degrees.
I suppose I’ve always been used to it, but I am on antidepressants and now have mild iron deficiency so yeah – right now it’s multivitamins and iron tablets.
I take some vitamin D supplements, but it’s honestly not helping that much. My sleep schedule is still fucked and looking outside is still depressing.
I’m going to move south as soon as I’ve finished my studies and I already spend all my vacations in the south. I also take vitamin D supplements.
As a redhead, my body makes its own vitamine D. So I just go though the days like it’s summer
I mean I’m just used to it so I don’t really care tbh, I’m generally someone who prefers to stay indoors in darkness anyways. And I’m ginger so I produce my own vitamin D and don’t really need the supplements for it.
I’m in the U.S. but have to deal with gloomy, cold, windy winters as well. I’ve found that time outside seems to do me the most good. I work primarily outside so that certainly helps but additional time outside seems to have even more benefit. When the wind isn’t too brutal I like to take walks with my dog down through the local creek and river bottoms, until the end of January I also spend a fair amount of time pheasant hunting. The end of February start of March is probably the bleakest when the wind seems to continually howl and the ground is a thick muddy soup with the frost all out of the ground but at least by then I can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Best of luck in the upcoming months and do your best to keep a positive mindset!
Alcohol, in any shape and form. Except wine, that shit should be banned
I live in northern Norway, dont take supplements, dont feel particularly bad either.
Going outside when there’s light. Accepting that I won’t feel as energetic as during February to September, and that’s ok.
So I’ve got a story about this. Last year, I was suffering from long COVID and I ended up with a “serious” vitamin D deficiency. I would work until mid afternoon then I would get so tired – instantly – that I couldn’t even sit in a chair, if you can believe that. Like, and 14:15 I was fine and at 14:16 I was in pain with how tired I was.
I got diagnosed with very – like remarkably – high iron in my blood and very – again remarkably – low vitamin D. I took Special Big Boy vitamin D supplements for 6 months and I got better.
I live in the central belt of Scotland, not that far north, but I’d recommend some vitamin D supplements because they worked for me.
You know, as I am reading this (and I’ve already survived one winter in Baden-Würrtemberg, Germany), I am pretty sure I’ll never move much more north than that
That winter was bad enough, I already hate winters here in Croatia
I guess I do the Nordic “dissociation” thing too since I grew up in Canookia where the sun goes down at 4 PM in the winter.
All I can do is make sure I’m outside at least once/day (unless I’m sick), make sure I get lots of exercise in, and keep myself routine-heavy until the end of March. If you know where you’re supposed to be all the time, you kinda forget that it’s crap weather.
I break up the first quarter with holidays, like Epiphany (cake!), Candlemas (pancakes!), Valentine’s (chocolates!), and for March, IDK, there’s usually something local happening, St Patricks’ Day, the equinox, or whatever else. Keeps it light too.
The gray and dull days don’t reflect on my emotional state.
all the things you mentioned are fine and can help, and I only can recommend two more: regularly drinking st-johns-wort tea (natural intedepressant), and get your blood checked to deal with any serious deficiencies.
but mostly I wanna touch on the thing you said you *don’t* like doing, but that I feel helps me the most: going out regularly, even when it’s bad weather, and by that I mean especially out into nature. agreed, it takes some practice, some *leaning into* it and *accepting* that it’s not blue-skyed and warm and pleasant. but dressing warmly, and then taking a walk and feeling the fresh wind on your face, the light drizzle, that slight smell that brings the promise of snow, seeing the beautiful and dramatic colors of the steel-gray sky and shades of ocher and pastel in the landscape, or the absolute quietness of a snowy forest, and feeling all warm and bundled up in your little protective cocoon, while you’re resisting the elements, mind over matter… the can be beautiful in a way. it’s a conscious decision to find the beauty in winter weather, it might take some effort depending on what you’re used to, but it gets easier with practice. do it somewhere nice (not the slushy dirty roads in a city, go take a walk somewhere along the coast or in a forest instead), and do it regularly, I’d say for about an hour a day. the first ten minutes (five after practice) will feel miserable and cold, and the rest of the time you’ll be glad you went out. and if you can’t do it during the week, do longer trips on weekends! also having a goal makes it easier to overcome that initial inertia, make appointments for people to go with you, take up a hobby like landscape photography, or ice-skating if you’re adventurous, even just walking a dog, or having the fixed goal of a planned hiking route can help.
for it to work, and I’m gonna repeat myself because it’s essential, you HAVE to have proper clothes. fuck going out in muddy weather with cold or leaky shoes, get warm waterproof boots with thick soles. fuck going out into wind without a windproof jacket and only a flimsy knitted hat that lets everything through, you’ll be miserable. get a proper jacket, warm pants if you have to, and a scarf and hat. make that into something positive too, winter clothes can be a really cool way to enjoy fashion, there’s so many accessories to play with and styles to choose from. but don’t overdo it, this is not about winning a fashion contest, most of all this is about you surviving a hazardous environment! no cute but revealing clothes, you’re trying to be *warm*. also don’t overdo it, getting multiple, light layers that can be mixed and matched is better than one crazy moon expedition parka.
in short: enjoy the winter. if you’re willing to look, the weather, the environment and the necessary clothes can all be surprisingly pleasant. no summer beach feeling, sure, but beautiful in their own, harsh way.
Large LED panels throughout the house to simulate daylight, to avoid getting the ‘the sound of silence’ in your head.
Those Southern Europeans will never understand why we shine like pearls and burn like lobsters on their beaches during summertime. Not until they’ve experienced a ‘Film Noir’ winter themselves in our dense chicken battery, that wasn’t build to celebrate life, but to maximize economic output. We’re culturally ‘cold’ for a reason.
I live in the Netherlands by the way.