That sounds like a prudent plan. Good luck!
@phys456 I wish you the best! Hoping you take a look at the CET site and try either or both a Dawn Simulator + Light Box. Columbia U has an informative page about SAD.
If you decide to stay, please do try the light. Professionals can be wrong, and even if this isn’t your main problem, it could be contributing to it. There isn’t any health risk to trying it, just a moderate cost for the light and some personal organization to use it.
Boy, I can relate to this… I grew up in the northern midwest and as a kid pretty much lived outdoors. We had 4 awesome seasons. Our winter was long but we didn’t know any different.
We moved to south Florida as I started high school, my blood thinnned and I got used to sunny weather. After college in North Carolina and 5 years in sunny California I transferred with my job to Chicago.
To my surprise, I had a really hard time that first winter, really dragging in February. It wasn’t the cold. The sky never seemed to be anything but gray. I was also still adjusting to a new place. Plus I worked long hours indoors so rarely even saw the daylight at all on weekdays. It gets dark at 4:30pm in winter here. Eventually, spring came.
The next winter I went home to Florida over President’s Day and never felt that same gloom that winter. I think just getting away from it for the long weekend just when I needed it (the 6 weeks of cold and gray after the Holidays), in addition to just plain getting used to winter again, did the trick. Once you come back you really have less than a month before the weather starts turning.
Oddly, the gray had never bothered me as a kid since I was just used to it. But after living elsewhere, I was shocked to realize I needed that midwinter break.
Without understanding your full history, it might be that you will feel better this winter partly because you have been through it once, but may I suggest you book a trip to somewhere sunny over President’s Day? Think of it as a mental refresher for mid-winter. Hopefully your full ride will allow you to afford this. A few days will do wonders. So will knowing you have that mid-semester break scheduled in.
Note the key is sunny and blue skies. It can be Florida for beach or Utah for skiing as long as it is bright and you can be outdoors. You will know best for yourself whether that time needs to be just relaxing on a beach, skiing on a mountain, or doing some type of volunteer or service project….
After a few years, you are fully used to it and will likely not need the mid-winter break at all… Good luck to you!!