It's really coming down out there

[olympiaitsthewater]

by snow pants i mean the insulated/waterproof pants you wear snowboarding/skiing. not sure if maharishi snopants have any sort of actual insulation/weather proofing features or why they're even called that. are they just meant to have the same shape/silhouette as snow pants?

[bels]

They're based on the shape of army surplus "snow pants" that were actually water resistant overtrousers I think.

[edmund]

how do you delineate between seasonal depression and garden-variety existential angst

i've been in the northeast long enough to think i can take seasonal affective disorder head-on if i could figure it out how to separate it from the evergreen depression i feel year-round

[thewisdomoftime]

how do you delineate between seasonal depression and garden-variety existential angst

i've been in the northeast long enough to think i can take seasonal affective disorder head-on if i could figure it out how to separate it from the evergreen depression i feel year-round

I think the answer to your question is "start doing all the little mood things they do in Iceland and see if any of them helps you." That's fish oil, superdosing vitamin D through supplements and diet (I'd just try both), and light therapy lamps.

Just saw a stray mention online that SAD affects 'about 5% of Americans.'

I also live in the Northeast, though not so north. I don't think of the sunrise/set timings in NYC differently from how it was in SC, where I grew up; but in the South there are lots of days between March and late December where the sun intensity is just grilling everything and heat lines come up off the ground, which you don't get up here. I appreciate not having those days, which just drive everyone indoors in SC, or - alternatively - drive people over to the beach to get sun poisoning.

I am a little bit scared that if I make it to Copenhagen, it'll be a bit too dreary for me. Everyone who moves there advises 'don't play around and take vitamin D pills like the locals.' They kinda have the same winter that NYC has, but with a much much milder summer, and they have constant rain and clouds even thru the Summer. Like Copenhagen has 230 sunlight hours in July, while Stockholm (250mi north!) has 283? (40 and 32 in December, respectively; while NYC has 141!)