Struggling so much with the endless grey dark weather

[Tipsandtricks22]

Its making me miserable. Its not uncommon for me to feel like this in the winter and at the beginning I really tried to be more positive about it and prevent it getting to me but today, the house is literally dark because its just completely grey and horrible and overcast outside. In a way I'd prefer if it was pelting down with rain, at least I like the sound of rain. I get that I live in England but as I'm unable to move to the Canary islands, how to I stop it making me feel so depressed?

They might get longer but it is still grey for around another 5 -7 months

This isn’t about temperature it’s about the grey skies

And in summer, there's always thread after thread on Mumsnet moaning about the heat; often with "climate change" mentioned for good measure.

It's wet today in the south of England, but for November, it's been very mild weather for a good while. Yesterday was sunny.

Fairy lights. All the lights.
Also, mulled wine. Not just for Christmas.🍷

I always go on holiday in the winter.

There is no need to spend six months in a cold country

Daftest idea I’ve heard! Get 2 airport 2 hours before flight to ensure you don’t miss it and get through security. 4.5 hour flight assuming it isn’t delayed. Arrive and get transport into town. Then repeat the process on way back. You’d have about 5 minutes in Lanzarote.

I struggle with it too OP and I feel like it gets worse every year. Last year my OH and I went to the Canaries for 5 nights in Feb (our DCs are old enough to be left) and I thought ‘Why have we never done this before?!’ It really broke the winter up. So we’ve booked again for January. It has made a difference to my state of mind as Christmas isn’t too far away now and then we’ll be away for a quick dose of warmth and sunshine. If this is something you could afford to do, I’d highly recommend it. (We still have a holiday with our DCs in the summer- usually a caravan trip in France or Germany. Well- we offer, but at 20 and nearly 18 they are increasingly wanting to do their own thing).

If you have younger DCs, could you afford a sunshine break in October or February half term or at Christmas just to break the winter up a bit?

I think she means two day trips.

Eg fly out friday night, fly back sunday night.

I have done those kind of two day trips. I did it to milan and ibiza this Autumn. For two days. I really enjoyed it! You don't need to go for a really long time

Completely agree - my asthma has been pretty much awful since mid-September. I checked the weather on Saturday afternoon and yesterday was supposed to be dry and bright. Yesterday it rained all day from about half 11 and today has been much the same. I fucking hate it!

Maybe but she said extreme day trip.

I think a lot of people are thinking about temperature and weather.

This is about the colour of the sky. It is. Depressing and saying to warm yourself up by cooking stews and putting up fairy lights and isn’t going to change what you see out of the window.

I have the added bonus of doing a physically active job that during the first signs of autumn rain I have to start taking painkillers.
I am in pain until the weather changes to heatwave.

I keep saying I can’t do another winter in the UK but until I finish off the renovations on my place I can’t sell and move but can’t finish the renovations as I am either working or feeling depressed because of the grey skies

I'm the opposite, I bloody love this weather. Love when it's dark when I wake up, dark when I leave work, cold, wet, rainy, it's just gorgeous. I wouldn't say I have SAD necessarily but I do find Summer a lot more challenging, the sun and heat does bring my mood down. Whereas in winter I just naturally feel so much happier with the gorgeous weather.

I go to lanzarote a lot and fly direct. It’s still some journey. Ok for a couple of weeks.

People call two day trips "a day trip" because you get one full day there.

You fly there friday night. You have the full day of saturday there. You fly back on sunday.

So you have one full day there

I feel you.. last year was the worst and my mental health was destroyed by spring. I have no energy and tend to hibernate and nap when ds is at school, generally being lazy. This year I'm determined not to do that, today I've been decorating my kitchen and decluttering

No - there's a trend ATM on social media to do extreme day trips - leaving at about 3am and returning at midnight.

Well maybe. I took them literally. Even flying out on Friday and back on Sunday would be exhausting but each to their own. Also very expensive as much of the cost is the flights.

I think the day trips to places like lanzarote are getting the plane in the early hours, arrive in Lanzarote at first light then spend the day there, go clubbing until the early hours then go to the airport for the trip back. No hotel needed

Wouldn’t do it myself anyway but I’d be very restricted with flight times. Maybe if near London.

It's not expensive. You can fly Bristol to Lanzarote in Jan and Feb for under £40 return. It's about half the cost of a train from Somerset to London!

@Namechanged999999 it might be the daftest idea you’ve ever heard but people are doing them, especially if near airports like Stansted . Leave early hours , have around 7 hours at destination and fly home. Not my cup of tea but they are increasingly popular if can get cheap flights. It was simply a suggestion for the OP.

I heard on a Zoe podcast that the light is about 500x brighter outside (Or something…. But a lot!!) so it’s always good to get out when you can OP… I feel you though

My friend does extreme day trips & loves them. Flight outbound is around 6/7am, takes 2.5 hours to get to Spain, spends around 9 hours there then evening flight home. It works for her though I'm not getting up at 3am for anyone!

Running has really helped my moods in winter. Lately I've been appreciating the 'nothing days'(as I call them) we've been having, not hot or cold, not really windy, not really rainy, just completely unremarkable weather. It's prefect running weather.

I also have a heated throw, a dog and cross stitch to hunker down with in evenings, that helps too.

So it would be dark at 5.30pm instead if 4.30pm and darker for an hour longer in the morning? You don't magically get longer daylight hours by moving to BST in the winter