Winter Blah Blog
Kimberly Beck
I cannot even count the number of clients who have come in complaining of the winter blues! We here in NE Ohio have received very little snow; however our rainy days are more than I’ve ever seen in the rainy month of April. Rain, even thunderstorms, and lots of gray days. My clients report feeling more depressed and hard to get started to doing anything. I have tried to put together a “rainy day kit” of stuff to do. Different activities both inside and outside, how to take advantage of this weather and believe it or not, with encouragement and support my clients are outside walking, getting those feel good hormones going. They report feeling a little bit better, I’ll take it !!!!!!!!!! A little bit is better than nothing.
I think the weather is definitely different this year than most other years and we need to be creative and work with the weather because we can’t change it !!! As a matter of fact our radio just said we will be getting a thunderstorm then it will turn over to a rain/snow mix then to all snow. People are confused by this weather, but if you have clients who are negative about the weather, try to get creative and work with the client to get active. They can do things indoors, like exercise, cleaning, picking out a hobby, creative activities like parents and children sitting down together to make a family puzzle or bringing out the old dusty board games instead of video games.
One of my clients devoted rainy days to movie and pizza night. Another depressed patient put on her coat and hat and started walking around her trailer park and she met people to stop over and have coffee and lunch with, she said she hasn’t felt this good in a long time. When the clients complain about the weather try not to give in and say yes it is lousy…. Put your creative thinking cap on and come up with something for that client to try. I have another depressed client who started mall walking… walking around the mall just for the exercise not to shop and his depression is getting better !!
I hope everyone can gain some encouragement from this blog because I know it’s tough for all of us during this kind of weather.
Kimberly Beck is a counselor and a doctoral candidate with a special interest in Self-injury. Other interests are PTSD, trauma, and Borderline personality disorder
Great post! I was just pondering how the weather has been making me feel bluesy lately.
Coming to you from the always winter-rainy city of Portland, Oregon, we feel your pain. It must be especially hard when the rain is not something you are used to. We are quite familiar here with Seasonal Affective Disorder and most of us seasonal sufferers take it in stride however it does get a bit crazy when the sun comes out. You wouldn’t believe the difference between downtown Portland streets on a day when the sun comes out. People are out in droves with smiles and energy and their faces. But what do we the rest of the time? We are out in droves, with a little less energy maybe, but smiles and friendliness just the same. Friendliness is the key, and Portland is a very friendly city. When the sun comes out our friendliness is borders on hypomanic. So your friend who went out visiting neighbors has it figured out.
Now, I can’t say that we are prone to drop in on neighbors, but I’m pretty sure this is why Portland and Seattle, another very rainy city, are so famous for coffee shops. Okay, it may have started with wanting to self medicate with caffeine, but we could all certainly stay home and make our own caramel machiato’s, but we don’t. We spend 3 and 4 dollars for a 20 oz drink that we could make at home for less than a dollar, because we just need to see people. And even if we are only making small talk, human interaction is the other drug that is so important to our rain soaked brains. We from a therapeutic alliance with the folks who whip up those various concoctions that we crave, so much so that we have given them a professional title; Barista. Going to the local coffee shop is like going to see your therapist and pharmacist at one location and the Barista is a prescriber who takes the time to meet your every need just like an ideal nurturing mother. You can ask for anything and Barista-mom will make it just how you like it; 2%, skim, soy milk, rice milk, not too sweet, not sweet at all, extra carmel, decalf, half calf, with a sprinkle of chocolate, cinnamon, or nutmeg. You get to decide, and Barista mom makes it with a smile and says, “here you are sweetie, can I get anything else for you?” All this therapy for just 3 or 4 dollars! I guess this is as good of an example of community counseling as you could find. Natalie Mills, MA, MFT, chrysaliscounseling.net
I’m wanting a caramel machiato now thank you
Your reply was much welcomed… SAD is high here too and the sunny days bring out everyone to the outside, smiling , happy… but then there are the highly depressed clientele that can’t even smile when its sunshine and beautiful outside, they can’t even get off the couch……..