Does everyone feel low/seasonal effective disorder on some level?

[ErinAndTonic]

I'm in such a funk! Dark mornings, non stop rain, minimal days in the office so feeling like a recluse as have barely seen anyone other than my partner in a few weeks..

Is this normal and are we all feeling a bit meh? Or do I need to look into this?! Think I might get a SAD lamp to see if it helps but I'm unsure if it's that or just general winter funk?

Hope I'm not the only one!

Haha actually I hadn’t had any sleep!

It seriously affects my mood in the summer. I hate sunshine, I love the dark winter days. Nothing makes me happier. I guess I have SAD the wrong way round.

It's not winter per se getting me down but this constant rain . I'm feeling like Noah I also wfh and create structure so every morning I take the dogs for a ramble in the woods or to the beach . This clears my head to start work . I finish work early afternoon and then it's coffee blankets and a movie . I tend to socialise at weekends in winter but also love winter to hunker down with my Lego , jigsaws and kindle . Like you I'm out a lot in the summer so have to almost plan my winter .

I struggle with the low light levels November to end January. February always seems to be a much brighter month!
It's just getting light when I'm leaving the house and dark when I get home on my working days. I try to make a point of getting out in the daylight on the other days as that does makes a difference.

It doesn't really help that the outdoor activities I do in evenings stop when the clocks go back so that definitely leaves a gap and I end up staying in watching tv, which isn't the best for me to after the workings day as I end up feeling all I did that day was work!

Maybe it's the wfh that's getting you down? I would never go back to it, the day just drifts by with no structure, so depressing.

I find a SAD lamp makes a massive difference - especially to how awake I feel across the whole day (I use mine for 20-30mins about this time in the morning).

Some of what you're talking about though sounds like you do need to get out of the house! Go to the pictures? Try out for a local choir? Join a book club? Even just go for a walk on a Saturday morning to the local library or for a coffee?

I have SAD but it affects me really badly in the summer. This summer made me feel suicidal, the days just dragged on forever and there was no respite from the endless heat. Everywhere you looked all the greenery and flowers were just dead. The grass was basically just dust by the end of it

I really like this time of year but i'm more of a stay at home person anyway, I love closing the curtains and 6pm and settling down with a hot chocolate, hot water bottle and a nice book.

TV is much better at this time of year too, theres nothing on in the summer.

All my life I have been a winter person - I feel my mood and energy levels lift as the days draw in and temperatures drop. I like everything about autumn and winter, the dark, the rain, the feeling of being snug inside while it's raging outside.

But then a couple of years ago, I suddenly had the opposite. I felt a sense of dread about the change of seasons, from the end of August onward. It was so weird. It was just impending doom. I assume there was something going on with me / my hormones / my nutrient levels, because it was such a 180 from how I've always been.

Back to normal now, but with a new appreciation of what SAD sufferers feel.

So no, not everyone feels this, but I think there are probably two factors - natural inclination and personal health and wellbeing.

I hate this time of year - it feels suffocating, like I'm living underground. Hate electric lights, hate lying on a sofa under a blanket, hate central heating, hate layers of wool, hate walking the dog in the dark, hate the endless gloomy weather, hate stodgy food - hate it all. I do the wintering, the hygge, the coorie, the mindset, the lunchtime walk etc etc etc and I still loathe it - basically it just boils down to having the same routine as the rest of the year (f/t work, household stuff, ferrying DC to things, out with the dog) but doing it under artificial light while the rain bounces down outside. It drags my spirit down and it's a battle to stay positive or on an even keel.

Roll on spring and summer when I can finally breathe again and get outside for hours of daylight without layers of clothes that then have to be dried again when I come inside.

I do and I also found a vast difference in days I am in the office and commute 1 hour each way and the days I work from home.

At home, I look out through a large window, have natural light and have still energy to do things when I shut down the laptop at 5pm. At work, artifical light even with a skylight behind me, a exhausting train journey back home and I am dead on my feet by 6pm.

November/December is normally still ok as lots is going on but January and February are my really bad months.

We normally try to go out at the weekends but the rain over the last weeks made it difficult.

I love my candles, cosy blankets, the fire but I am less energetic.

I'm struggling this year - don't like the shorter days and general lack of sunlight anyway, but working permanently from home means I seldom see others except for dh/dd and feel quite isolated. Try and get out to the gym of an evening if work allows but motivation is rock-bottom at the moment - suspect menopause has a lot to do with it - and it's that time of year when fewer people go so classes are quieter. Taking dd to look at universities every weekend and wondering when I'm going to organise Christmas shopping. I effectively organise Christmas every year - dh cooks everything but I do the rest - but this year a huge part of me just can't be bothered with it all anymore.

I'm the same.

Agree re wfh / in the office. When I'm working from home I can adjust my day and my seating position to make the most of the natural light and get outside as much as possible. My winter commute in the pitch dark along rural roads in the driving rain, sleet and snow is just miserable - and then I sit in an office under artificial light for hours on end. There's nothing nice about it at all.

Wet and /or cold/windy weather, lack of daylight hours when not in work and the constantly stressing about whether we can afford lights or heat this year is incredibly depressing. Even the kids are stressed out and cold. Thanks Tories.

I did
but purchased a limos SAD light and wow wow wow!!!

game changer

I am planning on selling a new one as my lovely bro heard me waxing lyrical about it and bought me for my birthday. But I think only need more one. Anyone interested pm me. £99 on JL. Open to offers!

Not limos

Lumie!

www.lumie.com/products/vitamin-l

Never had any issues living in England. I struggle with the dark winters in Reykjavik.

But the best thing for it is exercise. Even if you are WFH, you can probably take a 20 minute break at lunch for a brisk walk, a jog or a bike ride in the height of the daylight? Or give yourself an artificial commute, get out walking or cycling before you start work and again after you finish.

Take a Vitamin D supplement as well and give the lamps a try.

Or give yourself an artificial commute, get out walking or cycling before you start work and again after you finish

That doesn't really work though - it doesn't get light until 8.30/8.45 here and then it's dark around 3.30/4.

Judging by the amount of people on here praying for winter in July I'd say not everyone is affected. I'm with you though I find it so hard and it's just the start. Feels like such a long winter ahead. I've also wondered about an sad lamp however I work outside of the home and not at a desk so not sure when I'd actually use it

I'm completely with you on this one. People think I'm weird but this year in particular I found the summer unbearable and breathed a massive sigh of relief when September came round. I'm already dreading next summer a bit.

The perpetual DREARINESS of the last few days.. it seems like about an hour between opening the curtains & closing them again.. I'm ok, happy enough, but oh, for a glimpse of sunshine..

Yes, sunset to sunrise today is 9.30 - 16.51 going down to 11.22 - 15.29 at the solstice. It is very hard and I don't think there is anything that can make it fine if you are not lucky enough to be unaffected, just some things that make it a little better.

Personally I find it energises me a little even though it is in the dark. Getting out and moving in the cold air wakes me up. I will never enjoy November - February but the days when I move more I am less sluggish.

The Lumie alarm clock doesn't suit us because I get up an hour earlier than my husband and it wakes him up too.

I posted about this a few years ago, (but can't find the thread) It's a Lumie desk light that you have on for 20-30 minutes a day.

www.johnlewis.com/lumie-vitamin-l-slim-sad-light-white/p3177969

I think it helps, but as previous posters have said, in combination with getting out the house a bit and ideally doing some exercise.

Try being a person who hates summer, sun and heat in Australia!

November is certainly my saddest month of the year.
It includes the anniversary of DH’s death, which is the day before my birthday. The combination of dark evenings (Scotland) endless rain, grief over DH, and trying to pretend to be jolly on my birthday for the sake of my adult DDs who take me out for the day, plus seasonal affective disorder is overwhelming.
It will be a further month of increasing darkness - up to 18 hours of it at the solstice - and it will be February before it even stays light until 5pm. Roll on Spring!