Managing the Darker Months: Seasonal Low Mood in Aberdeen
If you notice your mood consistently dips as the days shorten, you’re not imagining it, and if you live in Aberdeen, you’re dealing with a more extreme version of it than most of the UK. By December, Aberdeen gets only around six and a half hours of daylight, and much of that is grey, overcast light rather than direct sun. For some people, that seasonal shift is a mild inconvenience. For others, it brings a real and recurring dip in mood, energy, and motivation each year, sometimes reaching the level of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). I’ll admit I’m a good example of this myself.
What seasonal low mood tends to look like
Common patterns include low energy and a sense of heaviness, a pull towards oversleeping or struggling to get up in the dark mornings, craving carbohydrates and comfort food, withdrawing socially, and a general flatness or loss of enjoyment in things that usually feel worthwhile. Because the pattern is seasonal, people often notice it recurs at a similar point each year, and just as reliably, lifts again as the days lengthen.
What can help
Light matters, deliberately. Getting outside during daylight hours, even brief, grey-sky daylight, makes a real difference, as does sitting near a window rather than in an interior room during the day. I find a desk lamp helps me get through the darker mornings. Some people find a light therapy lamp genuinely helpful; it’s worth a conversation with your GP about whether that’s suitable for you.
Structure protects mood when motivation is low. Low-mood months are exactly when routine and small, planned activities matter most, even though they’re the hardest to start. Keeping some structure, a regular wake time, one planned activity a day, tends to do more than waiting to feel motivated first.
Movement, even in small amounts. You don’t need an intense routine. A short walk in daylight covers two protective factors at once. It’s also worth slowing down a little and treating more time indoors as an opportunity rather than a loss: yoga, crafting, picking an instrument back up, knitting, cooking. Any of these give you something to look forward to that doesn’t depend on the weather.
Watch the isolation pull. Seasonal low mood often nudges people towards withdrawing exactly when connection would help most. Keeping even light social contact going through the darker months is protective.
When it’s more than “the winter blues”
If the low mood is significantly affecting your daily functioning, work, or relationships, recurs reliably each year, and lifts predictably in spring, it may meet the criteria for Seasonal Affective Disorder, a recognised, treatable form of depression, not simply a matter of willpower. CBT has a good evidence base for SAD specifically, alongside light therapy and, where appropriate, medication reviewed with your GP.
You don’t have to just wait out the winter
If the darker months are a genuine yearly low point rather than a mild dip, it’s worth talking to someone before you’re in the thick of it again next year. Get in touch to arrange an initial appointment.
