Post- New Year Blahs

I get these really bad. Hardcore. The technical term is Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

To break it down, basically, there is less sunlight in the winter months. Exposure to sunlight gives you Vitamin D, which makes you happy. On top of having SAD, I also have a Vitamin D deficiency, and I'm supposed to take vitamin D tablets but I don't because I'm on so many other pills as it is, it's a pain in the ass to also have to take those, which I know isn't a good reason. But what I do that's good is I sit by a light therapy lamp for 5 minutes in the morning, and I do breathing exercises for my anxiety while I do this. My brother got me a Brian Eno CD for Christmas to play during this ritual, but I haven't heard it yet because I don't do it every morning.

Also, I live in Chicago, where it's perpetually gray from December through March. I mean, there must be SOME sunlight because during the day you can see shit in a way that you can't at night, but it's a pretty pathetic excuse for daylight.

I usually don't really use the light therapy lamp until winter because a GOOD thing about Chicago is that in autumn the light is beautiful, so even though the days are starting to get shorter if I get up before 5 pm (which I often don't) I can get my sunlight from taking a walk in the sunshine.