Seasonal Depression - Acceptance
It's a good day today...I am glad you are here. To round out last weeks post with my meeting/interview with "Ms Gardenia", I have just a few thoughts to share this week. By now, you most likely have surmised your own affliction with seasonal depression or know someone in your life that experiences symptoms. And, you know that it isn't something that shows up one winter and goes away forever at the first sign of Spring. Seasonal depression is a real affliction and it recurs every year, to varying degrees. Certainly, an early spring with lots of sunshine can shorten a moody season as well as a long cloudy, rainy winter with no end, can drag out the symptoms. Everyone with this type of depression has symptoms like pot luck dinner; you get what you get, there is no choice in the matter. With that knowledge, for both the one with the symptoms and the one that is in the life of the one suffering, understanding and compassion can go a long way for both people. Expecting the symptoms to crop up and being prepared on both ends can make a huge difference throughout the season. For a loved one (a non sufferer) to be supportive to the one suffering, and be at their side through it, can be immeasurably helpful. Having a protocol and armed with ways that aid in lifting the depression can literally change the emotional trajectory in that season.
To end this little post, I want to encourage those that walk through the fire swamp of symptoms every winter to say this: Acceptance of your affliction doesn't mean you have succumbed to it or you have "given in". It's really quite a good thing to have a name for what you suffer from and know that you can take measures to overcome living in emotional and psychological defeat. To take care of your particular symptoms allows you to get on with the direction in life you want to go. You get to "move on" so to speak. It uplifts the quality of your day to take care of you; thus being open and available to the ones you love!
Have a great week! Cheers....Jeanine
P.S. Next week I will post a few suggestions of things you can do this summer as well as integrate into your arsenal for the next wave of winter blues...