To ask for tips on how to get through the winter blues?

[Afternooninthepark]

I know we are still in summertime and my favourite month of September is still to come but I’d love some tips/ideas on how to get through the winter.
Each winter I am getting worse, I hate it.
Now, I don’t mind a really crisp day with lovely blue skies and sunshine but more often than not it’s just grey and dreary, day in, day out.
I feel so lethargy during these winter months and am absolutely knackered by 3/4pm. I dread the clocks changing and the darkness closing in by 4pm.
I really do not want to go on antidepressants but need some tips on how to get through to April without becoming the sluggish, grumpy, melancholic person I always morph into from October to March.
I eat well, walk the dogs every day, dont smoke or drink and try to enjoy Winter but I just don’t. It affects me physically and emotionally.
Any tips how to bounce through winter without feeling like a miserable, sad ole Eeyore?

I'll echo taking magnesium along with the vitamin D. I find it helps a lot. I also use a light box which I have on my desk at work.

Go to the gym.

Sun rise alarm clock
And light box
Using sauna and steam and Jacuzzi at gym
Flowering plants and bulbs inside...an amarylis cheered me up so much last winter
High dose vitamin d
Winter sun holiday if you can afford it
Finding a new indoor hobby to get obsessive about...I like crafting...

Panning loads of things to look forward to: gigs, theatre, exhibition, weekend away. This helps me.

A week in The Canaries if you can afford it. Wish I’d discovered it years ago.

Winter holiday post xmas and new year, does so much to break the back of winter. Wait till the schools go back and find a deal.

We also join the swimming pool at a local hotel, has a sauna as well. It is lovely to come out glowing with a bounce you did not have going in. We only join in the winter, which makes it cheaper.

I find that a light box doesn't help me much at all (gave up using mine last winter after years of use). A winter holiday is great, I find that within a few hours of being somewhere like Tenerife or Madeira In December the "real me" is back, but beware a possible slump when you return, especially if the weather is very dull or overcast back home.
I've tried various anti-depressants but they turn me into a zombie. Also tried hypnotherapy but to no avail. I craft, cook, spend as much time as I can outside, (and eat loads of stodgy crap), but nothing is a substitute for proper sunshine.

Does anyone else have a really manic few days in early March? For me, it's like the new batteries have gone in, and I'm unbearable, full of energy and quite hyper (it's like the real me has returned, and I love it!)

Emma Mitchell has a lovely book called "Making Winter" - might be worth a look?

for everyone who gets it, it can be really debilitating and little understood, and far more than being a bit low.

I'm going on a short break and a gig in October a four day conference in a good hotel in November and another gig and an overnight break in December. Just need to plan diversions in January and February.

This is a good post.

Is there anywhere in Europe you can get sun in Jan/Feb? Or does it have to be the Canaries?

I hate flying so wondered if there was somewhere nearer!

OP, I had an app on my phone last year that gave me a gradual dawn wake up. I've used up all my free mornings so i'm going to stum up for one of those dawn alarm clocks. That's my one tip. It really made getting out of bed a little less shit.

I think you need to get to somewhere where the day length is equivalent to what we get in late February or early March. Very Southern Europe might do it ie southern Spain, but it might not (and then could be a bit of a wasted trip). Flight to canaries is about 4 hours, so not too bad, and is well worth it.
If I won the lottery I'd spend the whole winter abroad

oh yes, and at the risk of stating the obvious, put style aside and just buy the warmest coat. I am going to wear a wool coat over my northface thermoball until that's not warm enough and then I'll wear my thermoball under another a lands end squall coat. I'm not going to be cold.......

I was given those slipper socks one year did not know what to do with them until I discovered they fitted inside my big slippers when I wore them. Bliss.... If my feet are cold I am miserable.

Always have a rug for the sofa and cover up your lower half. That helps you keep cosy.

I moved abroad, to glorious year round high light levels . I was planning to go for 2 years but about to start my fifth and honestly don't think I could come back to the gloom.

But before this I used high dose vit D spray, one of those dawn wake up alarm clocks and copious amounts of wine between October and March.

I cope fairly well with January and February. Even though it's the coldest time of the year, it's getting lighter and spring is just around the corner. The hardest time is November and the first three weeks of December when it just keeps getting darker and darker. It's like a slow, steady slide into gloom.

For me it's not about the cold at all. My house is warm. I have clothes which keep me warm when I go outside. I have no desire to wear special socks or sit under a rug or blanket.

I also found last year that the Headspace app helped a lot, some content is free, some is paid for. Takes about 5 minutes a day and teaches guided mindfulness and meditation. Give it a go.

Last winter I was so bad I ended up on Prozac which actually did nothing for me, apart from insomnia and a chronic dry mouth. This year I'm going for a self-management strategy with the Vit D, light lamp and exercise when possible. My GP was sceptical about the benefits of the light lamp thing but was very much of the opinion that if I felt it was helping it wasn't going to do me any harm.

Thanks all for your tips.
My friends go abroad every Jan/Feb and says it really helps but sadly I just cant afford it.
I already walk outside loads as I have a dog and am a part time dog walker but I’ll definitely look into a light box.
I’m going to look into some hobbies to do at home in the hope of staving off the desire to nap every time I sit down in the winter.

How warm is it in the canaries in winter?

My mood starts to go rapidly downhill when the clocks go back and I turn the corner on 21st December when the shortest day comes and goes.

This is me too. I'd love autumn were it not for the rapidly increasing lack of daylight. As it is, I dread 31 October, and November is my least-liked month of the year by far.

Two things help me which I enjoy and can't get in the summer: flickering wood fires and star-gazing.

I suffer with a repeated Vitamin D deficiency which manifests in horrible joint pain, so I regularly take supplements anyway. But it's now recommended that everyone in this part of the world takes them from the end of September to end of March.

Could it be SAD? (seasonal disorder) A lumie clock may help if so. I think everyone feels a little like this in winter but definitely dont suffer alone, if you néed to speak to gp about it just know there will be so many more doing the same

what kept me going last year was my allotment. I grew loads of green veg, much spinach, and would go twice a week for a good session of compost turning, green veg picking, brushing the weed fabric and on dry days, painting the raised beds listening to the radio. It was virtually deserted down there in the winter.

It really helps to relieve stress and calm down especially after long days facing a computer screen.

Oh yes. November and most of December truly sucks.