A Plan for Coping with Seasonal Affective Disorder

I really hope it works.

Photo by Bernd Schulz on Unsplash

Last winter was rough on me.

I spent the first 14 years of my life in Southern California and the next 33 years in Nevada. And then I moved to northwestern Pennsylvania.

I was prepared for snow. I was prepared for cold. I was prepared for all manner of lake effect things. What took me by surprise, though was that there wasn’t that much snow and it wasn’t that cold, but holy crap, PA is dreary in the winter.

It’s gray. Like a dome clapped over the world, keeping out the sun. (And the moon and stars, for that matter. I haven’t seen stars since we left Nevada.)

Yep. Very much like this. For months. (Photo by Discovering Film on Unsplash)

I hibernated. Working from my bedroom meant days in a row of not leaving that room 20 or more hours a day. Day after day, week after week.

I was desperately homesick. I gained 20 pounds, falling back on food (my most reliable comfort.) I became prickly and easily irritated.

Seasonal Affective Disorder

I’m not huge on labels. I don’t go around self-diagnosing as a general rule. But, I have a doctor’s…