Hibernating….
The days are getting even shorter, the night time hours longer, and the energy of the suns reduces more as our world tips into winter in its seasonal dance in the cold of space.
At this time of increasing darkness, I find myself wondering again about whether our human reaction to this natural phenomena is in fact also natural.
Our reduced energy levels; our tendency towards a more lacklustre approach to the days; our general sleepiness and can’t-be-bothered-ness…. Is all this in line with the other creatures we share this planet with? Those hedgehogs who find shelter and curl up to sleep the winter away…. Those field mice too…. Perhaps those who leave these shores for warmer countries are joining in the great travels like those of the birds who sit and gather in huge groups on telephone lines, chattering, or sitting quietly in those great lines, waiting for some signal of meaning to them to tell them to start their great journey across continents to wait out the winter time in warmer climes, leaving our native feathered stayers to huddle and fluff up their feathers and ride out the cold…
Is all this actually in line with the slow and dark time of our temperate zone abode?
Could even SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder, be seen as a more exaggerated but still natural human reaction to the speediness of our current society? Where that speediness demands that we deny what might be our evolutionary heritage, a heritage that aligns us with the natural order of the world and urges us to sleep when it is dark… in our speedy society, we deny this by forcing ourselves to stay up and active beyond the sunset.
Electric lights keep our brains activated beyond the time of sleepiness – we’ve heard about the advice to not use tablets and computer screens just prior to our bedtime, as these stimulate us and keep us wakeful – and if continued over generations, does this leave us depleted, unattached to nature, and feeling the effects in the unease and dis-ease that interferes with the equanimity of so many people.
In this, I am not in any way saying that any antidepressant treatment or any other therapy for any worsening of mood level in the winter time should be reduced or stopped in favour of or even replaced by other measures such as going to bed a bit earlier each evening and banning electronic screen use after 3pm… please don’t do this.
Your doctor or responsible medical healthcare professional is your first port of call if you have any questions or wish to discuss further any other treatments they are prescribing for you.
I am in this just pondering the experiences of life, and offering that whatever level of energy you find yourself in in the dark time of year, getting support from others, from professionals, those who specialise in helping the mind and the soul, is not a sign of failure – we are social animals and we thrive best when in group. Psychotherapy – the attention to the mind elements of our lived experience – can help support you.
Rosalyn Young is a qualified mental health nurse with 30 years
Experience in govt and private agencies helping those in crisis
and in recovery. She has studied counselling to degree level,
and specialises in working with survivors of childhood abuse
and neglect, PTSD, DID, and emotional regulation problems.
She lives in Lincolnshire with her husband and a variety of
companion animals, is a brewer of mead, and student of
growing things in the garden.
