Light

Light impacts us in many ways, and impacts some more than others. I’m one of those for whom light has had both beneficial and deleterious effects. To put it bluntly, during the winter, I’m a S.A.D. bastard (that’s Seasonal Affective Disorder for them as don’t know).

Here’s another repeating pattern. Jan/Feb/March. Bleeeuuurgghh!!

It happens every year. I want to hibernate. I’m fine(ish) through late spring, summer and, on the whole, autumn. Then comes Christmas and New Year followed, with an annual inevitability, by January. It’s about this time that things tend to fall apart. Short days. Dull (sometimes just bloody dark) days with little or no light, let alone sunshine. Cold, wet and windy. Pleasant, mmm? On such days, and especially when there’s a long run of them, my mood drops like a stone. I get anxious, irritable, short tempered and my (fragile) self confidence all but disappears. I wish for nothing more than a warm bed and a long sleep. I can become very misanthropic. I don’t want to see or talk to anyone. It makes life quite difficult for me, my wife and my work colleagues. I have a few strategies for dealing with the worst of these effects.

1 – Exercise.

I get out on my bike as often as possible and ride for about an hour, generally up to the Ridgeway. The climb up is a great cardio-vascular workout. Sometimes I have to force myself. Occasionally the route is cut short if I feel especially narky and grumpy. But I generally make the effort and it’s usually worth it. It’s something to do with endorphins. You may have heard of them. They make you feel better…… h’apparently™ (Myk Ripley).

2 – Light Therapy.

Expensive initially but bloody worth it in the long run. I have a light visor. It looks like one of those visors that golfers wear to shade their eyes. This one differs in that it has bright LED lights in the visor and a battery pack. Set the intensity and duration and away you go, looking like a plonker but at least there’s the ability to move about and get on with stuff.

There’s also a light box. That’s set up at work. The warehouse is my domain in the small company I work for. My colleagues let me think that I’m the Warehouse Manager but I’m really a gofer. Above my packing bench I have a box that radiates large amounts of bright white light. It doesn’t half make that corner of the warehouse welcoming. So there’s oodles of light whilst cans of paint get taped in to boxes ready for distribution.

3- Drugs

Fluoxetine……..(better known as Prozac). It’s an attempt to keep the Deep Dark Pit™ at bay. It generally helps.

4- Booze

As in ‘not-too-much-booze’. As much as that warm, fuzzy glow that a good ale imparts is enticing, beer is, sadly, a depressant. I’ve learnt that it’s best to reduce my intake during the winter. I won’t give up completely. Once you do that it can become an obsessive craving which, if anything, can be as bad as the depression. (More on booze another time)

5 – Whistle

Current obsessive activity. See also Scuba, Booze, Books, Cycling, ‘Togging, Writing, Morris, Tunes.*

Actually it’s good to have something to keep occupied with. It helps stop the brooding and inevitable slide in to the Deep Dark Pit™

6- Holiday

Not a good idea. Well, not a ‘Winter Sun’ holiday anyway. Sounds like a great idea doesn’t it? Spend a few quid on a cheap package deal to LanzaGrotty, get topped up with sunshine and Vit. D for a week. Been there. Done that. Not pleasant. Don’t get me wrong. The week away is fine. Warm, sunny…..and that’s just me, never mind the weather. But, and it’s actually a big but, the return is a rather more bumpy affair. Plummet would actually be a better description. It feels like the lights have been switched off, and rather than the gradual slide in to winter that autumn provides, I get slammed in to the Deep Dark Pit™ and left there for dead, only to crawl out battered and bruised as spring errr….. springs.

It ain’t all doom and gloom though. What about those fantastic days when it’s crisp, bright, sunny, even freezing, especially after snow. The light bouncing around is fantastic. The low slanting light and the warm pink glow of the sun in the morning and evening make for some beautiful scenes. These are great days to be out. It makes being on the bike an absolute joy and with hoar frost rimy on the trees, a photographers dream.

That’s when the light is beneficial.

*Coming to a screen near you soon.