Lived Experience Forum

[Judi9877]

Hi and welcome😊! I thought I'd start a new discussion on the weather and the seasons that people experience here and how it affects your mental health. Everyone has a favourite type of weather they like or maybe a specific season, so let's get together and share! 
Trigger warning- This post may be upsetting to some members as it could bring up seasons such as bushfires. Please be aware of this.

As part of this post, the following things could be used to get ideas such as:

- What is your favourite type of weather or season?

- What do you like doing in that weather or season?

- How specific seasons affect different mental health conditions such as Seasonal Affective Disorder and Depression.

- Coping strategies for dealing with different seasons and different weather

- Personal experiences of different types of weather or seasons?

- Music/ songs based on weather 

I'll start off this by sharing some information about me. I love winter and spring as my favourite seasons. Winter because it's cold and I love staying inside with craft activities like knitting, crochet and cross stitching and having hot soups and reading books. Spring for me means new beginnings and the emergence of flowers which I love taking photos of even though I'm not a gardener. My favourite flowers are daffodils 🌼! As for types of weather, I like going to the beach and watching the waves crash when it's rainy or cold as I find them to be very moving and emotional. I also like rainbows 🌈 as it reminds me that after the rain, better weather is coming, like sunshine. See below of a photo I took a few weeks ago! 

I look forward to welcoming you on this new discussion!

[Faith-and-Hope]

Hi @Judi9877 .... 👋💕

Thanks for starting up an interesting new thread an tagging me to it 🤗

I love all the seasons for their different qualities and characteristics, and the different activities they offer.  My favourite season is probably Winter (love the cold ❣️) and my least favourite is Sunmer cos I burn to a crisp at a glance of sunshine ..... but a swim towards dusk or dawn, and a beach walk, are things I love about the hotter days ..... and watermelon, and mangoes ..... and ..... 

[Maggie]

@Judi9877   This is a great thread, Thankyou.

My favourite season is autumn. Leaves changing colours to me, is so beautiful. It’s also moving into winter, and like you, I prefer the cold weather, and I also like crafts.

I like getting under my doona with a hotty etc, it’s comforting.

I seem to have SAD in summer, a season I dread every year. It drains my energy, the days seem endlessly long, and the sun seems to always be out. So the comfort of my doona etc is gone, waiting for cooler nights.

[NatureLover]

@Maggie  - I never knew you could get SAD in summer. 😮 That would really suck.

I have SAD in winter, or more accurately, on every cloudy weather day throughout the year. It really affects me badly. I struggle with motivation and energy and get depressed. When the sun comes out my mood changes and I rush outside to get some sunshine. 

I even struggle with depression every night once the sun goes down. 

I prefer summer, not because I like extreme heat - I don't! But because the sun's out more often. I get more energy and am motivated to do things I can't manage to tackle in winter. 

[Shaz51]

this is a great thread @Judi9877 

hello @Maggie , @NatureLover , @Faith-and-Hope 

My favourite season is spring , -- just nice 

summer up here is tooo hot and humit, 

winter time is ok as we going get down to 16 degrees 

my husband has SAD and is affected by lots of rain , and heat 

[Eve7]

@Judi9877 @Shaz51 @NatureLover @Maggie @Faith-and-Hope 

This is very interesting. I am a summer girl and I love being on the beach with the sun shining on my body. I also love the sand and surf. If I have to do anything else in summer I like the a/c in my home, in my car and at work!

I love blue skies, sunshine and afternoon rain.

Winter makes me miserable but spring and autumn are ok in small doses so yes, I change with the weather!

I do not like going to the movies, shops, museums etc in the daytime especially sunny days.

I like sunflowers and geraniums.

That’s about it. 🏝🌻🌞🏊‍♀️🏄🏻‍♂️🏄‍♀️🏊‍♂️

[Faith-and-Hope]

I have learned to appreciate Summer @Eve7 ..... by being with people who love Summer.

[frog]

Great thread @Judi9877 !

I love hearing everyone's different takes on the seasons and weather and how they affect you

@eve7 @Shaz51 @NatureLover @Maggie @Faith-and-Hope

I love rain. And Autumn. I am finding extremes harder as I get older.

[Judi9877]

Hi @frog @Faith-and-Hope @Eve7 @Shaz51 @NatureLover @Maggie  Thanks for all of your interesting and fascinating things on what seasons and different types of weather you like and why.

I really like and admire how some people like summer because of the warm weather and the different elements like food and going to the beach yet for others, it can be a different experience due to the effect it has on energy levels. I know for myself, as I've gotten older, I find summer to be a lot hotter than it was when I was growing up in Melbourne in the 80s as now, there are more days of 40 degrees than there was back then. I also tend to struggle with endless days of those type of heatwave temperatures with my mental health causing me issues in terms of mood swings and therefore, preferring to spend the days in my bedroom sleeping with the fan on or hiding out in the library reading books. Depending on if it's really hot, like 42 or 43, my housemate/best friend and I might chill out at the movies and watch something. We watched 'Ralph wrecks the Internet' one hot day. I had an above ground pool in my suburban backyard as a kid and used to love summer as I would spend lots of days in it with my family, riding on inflatable toys. Funny how things can change as you get older. 

That poses a new question. Did you prefer a season when you were younger or at a different point in your life that you now don't prefer or has it stayed the same? I'm very interested to see your answers.

[Faith-and-Hope]

I have always loved the rain @Eve7 @frog