![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Autumn has arrived rather firmly here in London, and with it the wave of sad and tired I've come to associate with SAD. This is unusually early for me, so I've been on the back foot, scrambling to get my light box set up and GP appointments scheduled in. But I'm doing okay. Fistbump to everyone else dealing with this at the moment, whether you're in the northern hemisphere with the winter version, or the southern hemisphere and the summer version. (I feel it's maybe not a widely-known fact that some people have SAD that hits in spring/summer? But that is indeed a thing.)
It's an odd thing, a mood disorder that comes with relatively reliable time parameters. Knowing that I'll definitely feel better come spring if not before is reassuring in some ways, but given it's only just autumn now, that's a bloody long time away, and the path between now and then is both treacherous and tedious, to borrow a phrase from Elementary.
In the meantime, one foot in front of the other. I try and take advantage of the good days to shore up progress in the things I want to get done, so it's less dispiriting on bad days and I have more space to breath and just take care of myself.
Something I always find difficult is learning when to push myself and when not to. The idea of leaving the house frequently becomes the worst idea in the world, but often when I manage to do it I feel better afterwards. Other times, it's too much, I call off whatever I was going to do. They're both acts of self-care, but it's always hard to tell which one I need on a given occasion.
Mostly I try and remember that this is a real illness, and that it's understandable for it to have an effect on my capacity to do things. I'm doing my best, and eventually, spring will come around again.
While writing this, I couldn't really think of any specific advice that I had to offer to people other than 'hang in there', but if anyone's got advice on this subject they'd like to share in the comments, I'd be interested to hear it!
Really though, hang in there. ♥
It's an odd thing, a mood disorder that comes with relatively reliable time parameters. Knowing that I'll definitely feel better come spring if not before is reassuring in some ways, but given it's only just autumn now, that's a bloody long time away, and the path between now and then is both treacherous and tedious, to borrow a phrase from Elementary.
In the meantime, one foot in front of the other. I try and take advantage of the good days to shore up progress in the things I want to get done, so it's less dispiriting on bad days and I have more space to breath and just take care of myself.
Something I always find difficult is learning when to push myself and when not to. The idea of leaving the house frequently becomes the worst idea in the world, but often when I manage to do it I feel better afterwards. Other times, it's too much, I call off whatever I was going to do. They're both acts of self-care, but it's always hard to tell which one I need on a given occasion.
Mostly I try and remember that this is a real illness, and that it's understandable for it to have an effect on my capacity to do things. I'm doing my best, and eventually, spring will come around again.
While writing this, I couldn't really think of any specific advice that I had to offer to people other than 'hang in there', but if anyone's got advice on this subject they'd like to share in the comments, I'd be interested to hear it!
Really though, hang in there. ♥
Tags:
