Thriving in the Dark

Any discussion of winter and mindset (like this book) usually includes a discussion of seasonal affective disorder (SAD), an actual diagnosis found in the DSM-5 and a term that is often too widely and casually applied. People seem to love to pathologize their winter blues yet there’s a difference between winter blues and actual seasonal affective disorder.

Dr. Kari Leibowitz has a PhD in Social Psychology from Stanford University. She grew up near the Jersey Shore, where summer is life and like many people around her, she always hated winter growing up. She decided that in graduate school she would study winter’s negative effects on people’s mental health. Where best to go other than above the Arctic Circle? She went to Tromsø, Norway, assuming that the rate of seasonal affective disorder would be really high in a place where the sun doesn’t rise a couple of months out of the year. When she got there, she was shocked to find just the opposite. This made her pivot her research to the idea of a “wintertime mindset.” From Svalbard to Japan to Minnesota to Edmonton, she found communities and cultures of people who embrace winter, even looking forward to winter with enthusiasm.

While so much of the embracing of winter in these places depends on things like community and infrastructure, Dr. Leibowitz shares the ways in which we can make small changes in our own lives to make winter more enjoyable or at least, bearable. And no, she does not recommend light therapy though she does talk about light therapy and how it requires daily use for a certain amount of time when you wake up and it’s definitely not a cure-all.

Reading this book has made me even more excited for winter than I already am. I’m planning baked goods and rainy-day reads but also occasionally renting a sauna or hot tub at a local spot. I also ordered myself a proper thick hoodie because much of enjoying being out in the winter is dependent upon actually dressing correctly for the weather. I learned so much and I absolutely loved this incredibly engaging read.