Talvipäivän blues
Winter blues
Vuoden lyhyimmät päivät ovat käsillä. Olen onnistunut pitämään tavanomaisen talvimatalasuhdanteen loitolla viettämällä tavallista enemmän aikaa ulkona. Aurinkoinen sää on kompensoinut lyheneviä päiviä.
Päivä muuttui pari tuntia sitten pilviseksi, ja suomalaiset talviunigeenini heräsivät saman tien ja alkoivat vaatia 1) päiväunia 2) hiilihydraatteja 3) tulta uuniin.
Keskitalvi on minulle luovuuden kannalta avuttominta aikaa. Tämä näkyy mm. blogin harvoina merkintöinä, joita en jaksa pyydellä anteeksi. Kun ei ole mitään sanottavaa, ei kannata sanoa mitään.
Suomessa asuessani en muista erityisesti kärsineeni kaamosmasennuksesta. En siis enempää kuin muutkaan ympärilläni olevat ihmiset. Tuskin saisin diagnoosia nytkään, siksi lieviä ja lyhytaikaisia ovat talvibluesit. Tunnen sympatiaa niitä kohtaan, joiden elämästä kaamosmasennus tekee helvetin. Ja sitä paitsi: onhan aivan erityisen naurettavaa Australiassa asuvan puhua kaamosmasennuksesta.
Lukemani lehtijutun mukaan 10 prosenttia suomalaisista kärsii kaamosmasennuksesta, naiset miehiä kolme kertaa useammin. Lisäksi monet kärsivät vuodenaikaan liittyvistä, varsinaista masennusta lievemmistä oireista.
Kesäkuussa he eivät kärsi. Paitsi jos sattuvat asumaan eteläisellä pallonpuoliskolla.
(Valokuva ei liity aiheeseen.)
***
The shortest days of winter are here. So is the winter mood - lots of sleep and lots of carbohydrates aren't exactly a cure but they make life easier. This year has not been too bad so far: lots of sunny days and quite a lot of time spent outdoors, which is the best natural medicine against the winter blues.
Midwinter is for me the least creative time of the year. I find it hard to concentrate. The ideas just don't appear - you can tell by the number of postings on the blog in the past few weeks. I am not apologising for not writing when I don't have a thing to say!
It seems 10% of Finns suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) related depression during the winter months. And many more, possibly around 20% of them have the milder version, sometimes referred to as the winter blues.
I like the sound of that. It makes sleeping and getting fat sound quite dignified.
A Finn suffering from SAD in June is an anomaly. Either that, or she is living in the Southern Hemisphere.
In Finnish, June is called kesäkuu. It translates as 'the summer month'.
More information in this article.
(The photo is unrelated.)
Comments - Kommentit
Hi Anni.
Happy mid-winter, if that is not an oxymoron. It makes sense that the pre-Christian societies used mid-winter festivals to cheer up the gods, (and themselves). The Christians somehow managed to get the dates wrong by 4 days. Never quite worked out how that happened.
That linked article was interesting. Some seemingly contradictory statements - but that is human nature.
Peony growers celebrate mid-winter as the turning point, from which the new season's growth starts. Maybe that is an act of desperation, to convince ourselves that things will get better.
From now on, we need to be restrained from scratching away at the dirt, looking for signs of new red growth tips poking up through the soil. So, expect to see me, head down, bum up, (in the garden), more often from now on.
Denis
Posted by: Denis | June 21, 2006 12:27 AM
We are delighted to find you back, Anni, as we are also delighted to be back with a new computer after the SLOW demise of the other one - but now there are new things to be learned and only the old brain to use - it is a pity that new computers don't come with new plug-in brains!
Posted by: Marford | June 21, 2006 01:20 AM
Only a few days more, Anni, and your days start to get longer again. So hang on, Girl. I just made reservations for our flights to Melbourne to enjoy your midsummer, so no longest night for us this year either! Although, I do not really belong to those 10 % of sad SAD sufferers and sometimes even like the winter (at least in memories:)
Posted by: Hanhensulka | June 21, 2006 09:20 AM
I know Denis, you need to be a gardener to really live the seasons.
Good news about the new computer, Marjorie. If the computers came with new plug-in brains, I doubt anyone would have the courage to install them anyway. Better one's old brain than a new one manufactured by Microsoft.
Hanhensulka, I will travel the opposite way, so this year I will get two winter solstices. It has been a while... mostly it has been the other way round. (I do like winter as well. In some bits of Finland, I hear, they still get one.)
Posted by: Anni | June 21, 2006 12:03 PM