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Anyone from Toronto (or Canada/americans who deal with winter)

I live on a island in the Atlantic that is technically a part of Canada but does not resemble Canada much. So i guess you can get a good idea of where I'm from ;) . Thankfully we do not get very cold winters at all on my part of the island and except for cold snaps it is very rare for it to get below -5C. We will get the odd cold snap where we get a week or 2 of -10 to -15C weather but for the most part it hovers around the 0C mark. So we do not get the bone chilling cold that goes right through you and basically turns your nut sack into a vagina after just 5 minutes of being outside. I have lived in Edmonton, Toronto and Ottawa all in the winter time and you literally cannot be outside for longer then 10 minutes unless you have a fucking survival suit on. Ottawa was by far the coldest place ive been and how the hell anyone can stand living in a city where it's -35C for months on end is beyond me. I lived up in Toronto during the coldest winter on record and that sucked beyond words. I used to literally run up the street to go to the shop because that was the only way i could stay warm. For some reason people from Toronto think that people in Atlantic Canada and especially my province should be used to the cold but i guess they don't realize that -30C weather is almost unheard of here unless your living far inland. I can't remember the last time it got anywhere near -20C here. Though it has to be said that the damp cold you get here can be very unpleasant to say the least. Try staying warm when you have high winds pelting you with rain mixed with snow :! . But all in all it's alot easier then central Canada or the prairies weather wise in winter.

I do get bad seasonal affective disorder which adds to the bipolar depression i get. If i get outside and actually do stuff such as go snowmobiling or just shovel snow ffs to stay occupied then it's not so bad. Granted that's to global warming snow is not nearly as much of a problem here as it once was. Bit since i have trigeminal neuralgia i have to have a scarf, a hood or a ski mask covering my face if i go out on cold days with any wind. Sometimes i can be housebound for months especially if i am getting frequent attacks. So i have to do whatever i can inside to stay occupied which may explain why this house is pretty much spotless in winter :\

But i find it very easy to fall into the habit of sleeping almost 16 hours a day in the winter if I'm not careful. I have been so depressed some winters that i have done little besides get up out of bed long enough to shower, have a few smokes, eat (if i feel like it), clean the house and then go reward myself with getting some ganja. The rest i spend sleeping. I find that bupropion does help SAD a good abit though as it does kind of wake you up. Plus i take it anyway to control the depression side of my bipolar disorder. If I'm already depressed to begin with the near constant darkness in winter doesn't make it any better that's for sure.
 
yeah ottawa is absolutely freezing in the winter. Down the east coast things are much more moderate. In the city here (u can guess which it is) we rarely get snow and it's only actually cold for Jan/feb/march so not much of a winter. In Cape breton the snow is insane, i've gone off the road a few times during heavy snow storms.
 
Ottawa is mild, what on earth are you thinking? ;)

I love winter sports and can dress for them. I live in California, but I am in the upper Pacific NW USA this winter on assignment and for school. It gets dark pretty early here, which aside from the fact that I drive a small older car, sucks. It does feel very isolated, as I grew up in the tropics and did not see snow except on vacation until I was an older child living, well, not far from Toronto. Luckily my house has central heating, I'm surrounded by blankets, and I'm not sensitive to cold. SAD is a big deal. Running with a team of sled dogs on the weekend makes it a bit warmer. It's hard work and I become more tired from my weekends with huskies and malamutes than I do from 'real' work.

My budget is going to be too tight for me to get my Subaru until after winter has passed, unfortunately. I do have chains and snow tires, also I have access to my Alaskan roommate's full-sized SUV with shitkicking tires, thing could plow through snowbanks no problem. I think she even has a plow attachment, even though it doesn't snow more than an inch or two at our elevation.

I agree on the idiot drivers.
 
ugh, i hate winter and i live in michigan, where winter is like a seven month thing, it may not be as bad as canada, but i still fucking hate it. i try to get a warm coat, mittens, hat, etc, speaking of which i need boots, but always stock up on things to keep you warm when you're out and about. this doesn't really address the depression, but i usually try to work out more during this season (it helps to think of summer and bikinis, mere months away! ha,) reading, drawing, all of that. however, i do have a significantly lower vitamin d level than average and you may too, maybe try taking a vitamin d supplement to offset the minimal amount of sunlight or go tanning, something i have yet to try. i actually spend a lot of time thinking about moving to another region of the country where this isn't an issue, but that's not realistic right now so i usually just try to soldier up. also, this is going to be my first winter clean from any and all drugs and i plan on keeping up on my meeting attendance weather-permitting and staying busy that way. it pretty much comes down to staying busy as often as possible and doing things to naturally keep you happy, warm breeze or no warm breeze.
 
parachuteantics said:
I feel very "down" every since the seasons changed in upstate New York. The sun is setting almost at 4:30 now...I go outside, it's fucking cold. I feel lethargic and slightly depressed. Even the Christmas feeling makes me depressed - as in I will be broke, buys malls and stores, Christmas songs and smells implanted into your brain until you can't take it anymore. Driving in snow sucks...plus your car is effing cold when you want to go somewhere.

The few things that make me feel better are excercising, tanning (bad I know), eating healthy or making a goal of losing holiday weight. Hobbies too...such as concerts personally for me. It's still very depressing to me though.
Click to expand...

Yeah this has to be the most bs part of winter is the lack of sun. I take vitamin D for this reason as the sun is our main source of it. I get of work at and its pitch black in the country when im driving back to the city and home. Fucking sucks shit. Leave home its dark. Come home its dark.
 
Vitamin D is your friend, definitely take a supplement if you have the winter blues and find you aren't getting much sunlight, helps a lot.
 
Ahh yes, fellow Canadians to commiserate with. I could die on frost-covered mornings like today's, slipping wildly on some fellows porch, bottle still in hand and trying to light the last of my cigarettes. The afternoon in Toronto was beautiful though, but that could just be the drugs talking.
 
I'm from Finland and winter definately is an issue here also... 24 years I've been living here, and every year it surprises me again to see how cold, dark and depressing it is... But yeah, for the question how to cope, just try to eat healthy overall, have some vitamin D, and try to make the best out of winter. Yeah, It's fucking cold but you should try Doing some winter sports, like go snowboarding or skiing or something, It's fun few times a year :P Or get a good group of friends, some food, and go hang around in a public laplanders hut if they are available for you :P
 
I am from Northern New York (high altitude). Every winter, we have stretches of below zero (-35F is the coldest I have seen) for weeks at a time. Snow does not bother me too much. If it is 20f and snowing, I am happy. This weather makes me appreciate my warm car and a cup of coffee. Sometimes I will just sit in my car in the boondocks and zone out.

I did live in northern California, on the coast, for a year or so. The weather there is just as bad during the winter, just in a different way. 45f with rain and high winds is not pleasant either.

Florida is too hot for me, even in the winter.

No location has a perfect climate.
 
I have no automatic start in my car so going out at 7AM when it's about 7F out really is not a fun thing :| I hate cold cars...
 
I used to get SAD pretty bad when I lived in NY/NJ. Hell, I still get it out here in San Fran. One thing that has really helped with the depression in the past has been Bupropion (Wellbutrin). If you just take a course of that in the winter (ie. always save it for the winter), it could work wonders for you. I went to college in upstate NY (Albany) and lived in a really, really poor part of town. Those winters, surrounded by burnt out buildings and just....the gray, nearly wiped me out. It was hard to stay positive.
 
I'm pretty sensitive to the cold (likely after moving to a cold climate after years spent in the tropics). I like to spend a lot of time outdoors being physically active, but this gets severely limited in the middle of winter. So I end up with more time spent bored and trying to entertain myself at home, which often leads towards unhealthy "getting in my own head."

This winter I've made it particularly bad for myself, putting myself in rather frequent opiate withdrawal, which is not comfortable when it's already freezing. Last winter I had put on a lot of muscle, and I found that this helped me significantly with handling the cold. So an intense exercise regime can help, if that's your thing.

I end up taking frequent hot showers to keep warm when my apartment gets really cold. Granted it's only a temporary solution, but it helps me thaw out my feet (which are always freezing).
 
I grew up in northern New England and when I finished college I immediately left for warmer areas. I spent several decades in the Caribbean and Florida until I could no longer stand constant sweating, giant bugs, mold on everything, etc, etc., and moved back to New England about 15 months ago. I purposely chose a location very close to the ocean and though we get snow and cold temps it is nothing like where I grew up. I still own a home in Florida that I rent to my son and don't have any plans to sell it but I am very much enjoying being back home in New England.
I def had major depression problems when I was younger and ironically experienced similar bouts of seasonal depression during times of unrelenting heat and humidity while living in Florida and the islands.
I make sure to get about 20-30 minutes of preferably morning sun. If the sky stays gray for awhile, I stop by the tanning place. Even though the UV light isn't the same type as the SAD lights, I still feel better.
However the biggest change has been my point of view. I choose to seek out positive people and activities. If I feel like I'm sliding into a negative attitude, I do whatever I need to do to shift from negative to positive. It's not easy but it is possible. I can't change the weather but I can change how I cope with it.
Life certainly isn't perfect, not by a long shot, but I'm amazed and grateful to still be alive. After some of the shit I've been through, there's just no way I'm gonna allow things totally out of my control and influence to fuck up what's left of life this time around.
FWIW...
-izzy
 
^ I think we may live in the same state =D

Great post btw, it helps put things into perspective.
 
Indeed. Or a snowmobile or snowboarding trip might be in order. Bring a 12 pack and hitter box and you're set. Embrace the seasons.
 
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