A Sign of The Times

I honestly had no idea that winter depression was something real.

I don’t know if it’s the cold that truly brings out how alone you are? Because there’s no one to cuddle and sip hot chocolate with during those cold evenings, while watching a movie and pretending to pay attention while you’re really thinking about how blessed you are to be in someone’s arms.

Must be nice.

And others, or at least those who have been consistently single, are thinking ‘another winter alone’. And it’s worse at night, for some reason. You can’t stop dreaming about what your life should be, what your life can be, or basically what your life is supposed to be. It’s all too real.

As the temperature gets lower, your tolerance for being single takes a fall as well.

These are the moments where you notice that everyone is in love and happy – and the sight of a couple in their honeymoon phase automatically makes you sad.

It’s all fun and games when people post romantic pictures and stuff all over social media… In your heart, you know you want to be just like them. But where to look? Where to go? Especially on these cold nights when you don’t even want to get out of bed.

And then as you’re trying your best to pretend that everything is OK, especially with all the chaos that’s going on in your life, you turn to music to ease the pain. Because when music hits, you ‘feel no pain’, right?

Wrong.

Your playlist is riddled with emotional jams – some with words that all too relatable. That’s when your eyes tear up a little because wow, #IRelate.

Even YouTube has no mercy. Their recommendations to you are things like: ‘Alone Mix’, ‘The World’s Most Emotional Music Mix’, ‘Enya’, and so much more. You skip it all during the daytime, but your urge to listen to them at night becomes oh-so-real.

Even if you’re casually walking through the cold, you think ‘if I had a partner, maybe they could pick me up and we could go to work together’, or ‘if I had a partner, we could probably pick up some soup for lunch’. It’s truly the perfect season for daydreaming and cuddling your pillow.

It’s not something you confess to the people you know – because you’re trying to portray the image that you’re strong, but deep in the night when you’re alone in bed, you’ll think about it. Sometimes whether you like it or not.

So before the winter depression hits, if it hasn’t already, there are two great medicines that were made possibly for this exact reason: Distractions or sleep.

Here’s what I love about falling asleep: You pass out and you’re no longer in this state of sadness – you’re just there (unless your dreams cruelly remind you how you could be at your happiest). After all, dreams are supposed to show you what you ultimately feel and there’s no escaping that.

But if your night has gone by in a dreamless state, good for you.

Otherwise, distract yourself.

Watch a series that you’ve never heard of before, watch a French movie with subtitles, indulge yourself in reading a novel that you’ve always thought of finishing, complete your learner’s license already, do something!

Because taking your mind off things, especially for the next couple of months, will help keep you from giving in to your tumultuous emotions. You may have done this all before, but I urge you to keep fighting. It’s real out there.

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