to be spiralling into actual depression, because of the rain? Is that pathetic?

[sadpapercourtesan]

It's just been unrelenting, filthy grey skies and pelting rain, for days

It doesn't seem to have got light properly since at least last Thursday. I realised this morning (when I woke up and was assailed by black thoughts, always a warning sign) that I'm on the brink of a proper depressive episode. My tried and tested strategies for pulling myself out of it (going for a long walk in nature, meeting a friend for a chat, gardening) are all off the table. I can't settle to anything and am feeling tearful, short-tempered and panicky. I'd made an early start on gardening this year which I was feeling really positive about - now my trays of little plants and cuttings etc are drowning in the rain, and my garden is a mass of weeds.

It's a bit pathetic isn't it, to be falling into depression because it's raining? Is anyone else feeling this bad?

@sadpapercourtesan def not just you. I'm a miserable cow right now. Wall to wall rain, loads of the restaurants/cafes only have tiny amounts of covered outdoor seating and even then it's fucking freezing. Roll on when we can go in mates' houses for tea!!!

@Speedymarie

I understand it is lovely when it's a glorious sunny day. I have to say though that I love rain, I just like weather really, all kinds. When people say they go for a walk everyday, where on earth do they walk? I live on a shitty estate, to get anywhere scenic would require a car. Even if I wanted to go for a walk it would be depressing, I don't understand the walk people.

We live in a village by the coast. Our usual walk takes us through the village, past 2 fields full of lambs, along a coastal path and back round the other side of the field and home. It’s the first year we’ve lived here and we’ve loved watching the lambs growing up, saying hi to dog walkers and the other evening we even saw a woodpecker pecking a telegraph pole! It’s idyllic in the sunshine, but my god, the wind has been blasting us since February!

At this rate I will be putting the tree up at the end of June and having another Christmas. It's rubbish. My friend who lives in Germany says it's as shit there and they normally have hot weather by now, so at least we aren't on our own. They are in full lockdown too.

yes I can also vouch for shit weather in Germany.I am living in southern Germany close to the Alps .Our weather has been exactly the same apart from a day or two of good weather .right now it is bucketing down outside and 9 degrees .The weather forecast for the for the next week is more of the same with temps not going above 15 degrees.now is forecast for the Alps this weekend .Notrhern Italy is also wet and cold.Normally at this time of the year its warm and sunny averaging 25 degrees .My birthday is on Saturday and we are usually in the Biergarten.Not so this year .maybe at home with Glühwein.

You need a SAD lamp. I am affected worse by SAD in a dark cold wet spring than Nov/Dec/jan. it’s like your body and brain have an expectation of brighter warmer days come spring and reacts badly when it’s the opposite!

Its not unusual as weather affects mood greatly. I feel low too x

*Snow is forecast for the Alps.

Heating on. Skies are grey. Even when we’ve had sun it’s been with a cold wind. Fed up with it.

Nope, not stupid. I feel that as well, been tormenting myself with holidays I can't afford, feeling like a complete waste of a life with a very bleak future. If the sun was out at least I could get my coping strategies

Yeah I really struggle with the British weather too. This time a year ago I was definitely in lighter clothing whereas now it's largely jeans, boots and jumpers. Just got a bike and was excited to be able to go out on it but the forecast is so grim. It really is depressing. I know that I am so much happier when it's sunny, even if it isn't especially warm.

Yeah I get what you mean OP. I can deal with it in the winter, in fact I almost look forward to it getting dark early and the cold and all that comes with it. But it’s fucking May. I want sunshine not slate grey skies, torrential rain on the school run and having to stick the heating on to dry my kids coats and shoes after the walk home from school.

Op please be kind to yourself. It’s bad enough spreading into depression without Judging yourself so harshly for it. You wouldn’t do that to a friend🌺.

X

I get where you’re coming from too. Not just the incessant rain, but the fact that it’s all so far behind in the garden. And it’s so cold. And grey. And windy. And my arthritic self is creaking and full of aches.
And we can’t realistically go anywhere else to escape it, that’s not helping either.
I just hope that when the weather warms up the garden will be AMAZING because everything has been so held back it’ll all break at once.
Not the greatest May so far...

My son bought a sun light lamp thing and he said it helped him.

YANBU at all OP, you're not alone. The two things that would help to lift your mood - walks and gardening - are both curtailed by heavy rain. I'm exactly the same, feeling thorougly fed up about the weather. My top tip is to try to get out for a walk and/or some pottering in the garden between showers, but wear a hooded rain jacket so you can cover up when the rain comes. This is what I do, as I find a long walk and/or gardening each day really helps my mood, even if I do get a bit wet. Also, check the BBC weather forecast online, for your local area. It shows the probability of rain on an hour hy hour basis, so is handy to plan your time outside to avoid the heaviest rain.

Try to move your plants under cover to avoid the worst of the downpours, if possible. Sometimes just moving plants under the eaves of your house makes a huge difference, but failing that you could bring a few indoors. Seedlings do crave light, but if you turn them daily they should stay fairly upright.

Chin up, OP, I know the rain is an utter drag, but this weather will improve, eventually.

Well, we need rain - the earth was baked hard and cracking here, and we had no rain for 6 weeks!! But of course it can be depressing when it's raining and you wanted to get out.

Can you rescue or protect the seedlings? Can you do something nice indoors? Film, art, ring a friend?

@the80sweregreat

The VE Day celebrations last May was really hot ! All i recall of the first lockdown last year was sun!

When the first lockdown started in March it was pretty warm. Me and DH did loads in the garden.

I have just looked my diary for last year. We had 8 warm sunny days in May and the rest were not great. 12 days that were cold and windy and rained most of them too. We definitely had the heating on in May.

June wasn't much better. A couple of very hot days but the rest fairly chilly

July and august last year was boiling here ! One week in august it was really unbearable until it finally broke and went a bit cooler.
I remember threads about it! I'm south East though , so it tends to be worse if it's a really hot spell of weather or a heatwave.

@the80sweregreat

July and august last year was boiling here ! One week in august it was really unbearable until it finally broke and went a bit cooler. I remember threads about it! I'm south East though , so it tends to be worse if it's a really hot spell of weather or a heatwave.

We had a week of horrible very hot and humid weather but other than that it was not a good summer.

Just looked in my diary again.
1st to 5th July chilly and rainy

6th sunny fairly warm
7th to 11th cold and rain most days
12th sunny.
13th to 15th chilly and raining
16th to 24th fairly warm
26th chilly and rainy
27th poured all day and chilly
28th to 30th warm
30th to 31st very hot

The first week of August was very hot but then the rest of the month was a mixture of quite a lot of rain, very windy and some days quite chilly

Not just you. I’m generally really flagging with everything now - don’t feel particularly like we’re coming out of everything, haven’t recovered my get up and go from last January. Suffer from MH issues anyway. This endless cold wet weather is the final straw. I feel like we spend 5-6 months or so living in winter so the least we can ask for is not to have it the other 5-6 months?!

I hate the heat so I don’t want a heatwave but just some sort of spring would be nice?!

Anyway - not just you and be kind to yourself! Times is hard.

The weather has been awful. And I don't want to go for a walk in torrential rain, it's miserable. We are long overdue a prolonged period of nice weather after the last two disappointing summers. Hopefully it will start soon. I'm not even holding out for really hot here, just well into the 20's for more than a couple of days at a time will do. Weather definitely affects mood.

It was actually quite warm and sunny yesterday and I thought at last the weather had changed.

Today it is grey and chilly and looks like it is going to pour any second. I really want to put the heating on but am holding off

You’re not alone. I posted something similar recently. It’s just the absolute relentlessness of it. I’m fed up of my winter coat. Of being constantly cold. I have two young kids and so spend long freezing hours in parks. In fact, just gearing up to do that now.

So no help, but at least you’re not the only one.

I just had a look at the BBC forecast for southern England and it predicts rain every day until June 1st. Looks like the damn jetstream is stuck south of us semi permanently - dismal. May is normally my favourite time of year, but this one feels more like March. We needed rain, but there's such a thing as too much of it. I am craving sunshine!

Just in an attempt to cheers you up - a wet spring means beautiful autumn colours.