Southern Marylanders try to ward off winter blues by keeping active

Friday, Jan. 18, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff Photo by Reid silverman Bobby Stasch of Charlotte Hall loses his hat to the wind on the first hole at Wicomico Shores Golf Course during a recent golf outing. Stasch said he plays regularly throughout the year. Maintaining a regular exercise routine can be key to fending off the winter blues. Sabrina McCrae keeps the enthusiasm up at her Jazzercise class at the Capital Clubhouse in Waldorf. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story Click here to enlarge this photo Staff Photo by Gary Smith

The holidays have been over for a couple of weeks now and Southern Marylanders have returned to their usual routine.

Only at this time of year, there’s no magic day to look forward to for several months. In addition, credit card bills are larger; the winter landscape is brown and dead; and there’s a lot less sunlight streaming into windows each day.

This is the time, experts say, that the post-holiday winter blues begin to eat away at happiness. Many people become grouchy, withdrawn, sleepier and hungrier. Our bodies tell us to hunker down and wait for winter to pass, but the dictates of modern life won’t let us.

Experts say we shouldn’t and don’t have to take this feeling lying down. There are ways to combat it. There are ways to wade into the new year with a smile rather than a frown.

It’s all in your head

Humans need sunlight.

Though solar radiation is usually associated with the dangers of skin cancer, people actually need to be exposed to sunlight in order to stimulate their bodies to produce proper levels of melatonin and serotonin, chemicals that equip the brain to regulate sleep patterns and stabilize mood.

As the earth’s orbit tilts the Northern Hemisphere out of the sun’s direct blast, the days grow shorter, and people absorb less ambient light, causing them to create less of these ‘‘happy” chemicals.

It’s not listed in the latest edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s book of mental disorders, but Regina Johnson, a psychologist at the nonprofit Center for Children in La Plata, said that seasonal affective disorder (known by its fitting acronym, SAD) is a thoroughly documented state of mind.

‘‘Absolutely, it’s a real phenomenon,” Johnson said of the ‘‘post-Christmas letdown” and seasonal depression. Johnson said the winter reduction in sunlight can push otherwise manageable mental illnesses over the edge and inspire genetically encoded behaviors in some people that conflict with modern schedules.

Before the invention of the electric light, Johnson said, people rose and slept according to the cycle of the sun. ‘‘Now people say there’s something wrong with you when you’re doing what your body wants to do,” Johnson said.

To solve this conflict, Johnson said people should make a conscious effort to get a daily dose of ambient light or, in extreme cases, consult with a doctor about taking medicine or using ambient light box treatments that mimic sunlight.

Johnson said that SAD is more prevalent in northern latitudes. Maryland, she said, is about the most southern state where the disorder is found. Referring to the state’s divided status in the Civil War, she said, ‘‘We’re kind of the border state when it comes to this issue, too.”

Even if nature didn’t conspire against our moods this time of year, the culture still would. The commercial hype for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays has become so extreme that most people cannot hope to live up to it.

Kathy O’Brien, executive director of Walden-Sierra in Leonardtown, said her nonprofit organization starts seeing an increase in the number of people seeking counseling as the ‘‘season of expectation” gets under way. O’Brien said the season can be extremely stressful for those who must attend uncomfortable family gatherings and feel pressured to provide the ‘‘Martha Stewart wonderful Christmas.”

The best way to avoid a post-holiday letdown, O’Brien said, is to ‘‘start with lowering our expectations.” For those in the midst of a letdown, O’Brien said the best course of action depends on whether the person feels isolated or overwhelmed.

‘‘If you’re isolated, try to reconnect. If you’re frenzied, try to ratchet it down,” O’Brien advised. ‘‘Sometimes we’re very good caretakers of others and not such good caretakers of ourselves.”

Get off your rump

For those feeling the desire to cower under the covers or slump in front of the television until this wretched period of the year passes, Johnson and O’Brien urge the opposite.

The heat of exercise and the shine of social experiences can stimulate the mind when the sun is not available. These experiences don’t have to be struggles of will power or adventures in creative financing.

‘‘Often, people don’t take advantage of free events,” O’Brien said, noting that the best defense against SAD is ‘‘getting outside and getting outside of yourself.”

Johnson confirmed that less severe cases of SAD could be treated by ‘‘just getting outside” or sitting by an open window. So she urged people to go out and play ‘‘even when you don’t feel like it.”

The tri-county area has plenty of opportunities to get out and do something this winter without breaking the bank. The St. Mary’s County Department of Recreation, Parks and Community Services has dozens of activities to help avoid getting cabin fever.

‘‘The Great Mills pool is open year-round,” suggested recreation and parks worker Kathy Bailey. ‘‘We also have trips and tours scheduled, and a lot of our leisure time classes are getting ready to start.”

Some of the leisure activities include a dog obedience course, arts and crafts classes and dance and music programs. ‘‘And we have drop-in volleyball games every Tuesday and Wednesday evening for $3 a night,” Bailey added.

There’s also a lot going on at the county libraries, said Marilyn Lash of the library staff.

All three branches have weekly morning and afternoon story time programs for toddlers and preschoolers and evening book discussion forums for adults.

The Lexington Park branch will kick off Black History Month on Feb. 9 with re-enactors from the Baltimore chapter of the Buffalo Soldiers, who will talk about that group’s place in history. Other monthly programs at the Lexington park branch include computer training and teen advisory board meetings.

The Calvert County Library in Prince Frederick is hosting, in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution, a free exhibit called ‘‘Key Ingredients: America by Food.” The month-long event features displays of local cookbooks and strange kitchen utensils along with lectures and discussions on food and a recipe contest.

Those who want a little entertainment with their food can check out the Calvert library’s adult Wii gaming nights. Nintendo’s video game machine was tough to find this holiday season, but the library managed to buy six of them and invites the public to come out on the first Wednesday of every month to, in Truslow’s words, ‘‘Try out the Wii and meet new people.”

Charles County Community Services offers more traditional winter sports at its Capital Clubhouse ice rink in Waldorf.

‘‘With the clubhouse, there are lots of opportunities,” said Eileen Minnick, community services’ recreation chief. ‘‘We constantly have stuff going on.”

The clubhouse features a variety of raucous indoor pickup sports, including ice hockey, dodgeball and indoor soccer. But things will slow down to an easier pace on the last Friday of every month this winter when the rink debuts its new DJ Skate Night. The event has a $10 cover charge, but Minnick noted, ‘‘It’s cheaper than seeing a movie.”

Time to tame the plastic

Even if one manages to find free or cheap things to do in January, February and March, this part of the year can still be a financial black hole. People caught in the chasm between the sharp slope of Christmas bills and the ladder of a tax refund have a different definition of the winter blues.

Unfortunately, frolicking in the sun is not enough to get rid of this problem. Mark De Luca, a financial planner with First Command Financial Planning in Lexington Park, said the first thing he does when clients come to him with financial problems is try to change their mindset. ‘‘I really think the best way to handle that ... is tell my client that this really is time to turn around,” De Luca said, explaining that he tells his clients to view fiscal reconstruction not as chore and drudgery, but as taking control of their lives again. ‘‘Look at it as a positive. This is an opportunity for you to say, ‘I’m going to get back on track.’”

De Luca said that everyone’s financial situation is different, so it’s hard to prescribe a one-size-fits-all solution for financial woe. However, a few principles hold true in every situation — prioritization, organization and discipline. To get out of the situation many people find themselves in after a holiday spending spree, De Luca said people need to stop focusing purely on the short term and focus on where they want to be in the future. ‘‘What they really need to do is decide what’s important to them and focus on it,” he said.

When paying bills, basic needs should come first, and high-interest, unstructured debt should come next, De Luca advised. People should also keep a healthy amount of money in savings to deal with emergency situations. Once focused on acute priorities and a long-term goal, De Luca said people should organize their financial lives by gathering and sorting all of their financial documents into a central file and reducing the number of debt accounts they have.

E-mail Jay Friess at jfriess@somdnews.com. Staff writer Paul C.Leibe contributed to this report.