With winter in full swing, the lack of daylight is a big impact on everyone's mood, along with the complete change in scenery. New England going from a green paradise in the summer where the sun sets at 8, to an autumn wonderland with beautiful leaves for a brief period of time. Then comes the gray skies, no leaves on the trees and short nights with the sun setting at 4. This in between fall and winter season has been getting longer and longer as we seem to be having a delay in getting snow the last few years. Which makes it even harder since you can't even enjoy winter activities.
On top of the lack of sun and colors what we end up doing is spending more and more time indoors doing things like watching series we have already seen time and time again, on our phones doom scrolling and other things to pass the time.
This often leads to people getting something called Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D) for short also known as the winter blues. It's estimated that 4 in 10 American's get effected by this, with women being affected 4 times as much as men. Symptoms range from mild to very serious.
Feeling sad
Loss of interest or pleasure in activities you typically enjoy
Changes in appetite (typically eating more and craving carbohydrates and sugars)
Change in sleep (usually sleeping too much)
Loss of energy or feeling more tired despite a good amount of sleep
Slowed thinking, concentration or decision making
Increase in activities like pacing, handwringing or inability to sit still, or slowed movements or speech
Feeling hopeless, worthless or guilty
Thoughts of death or suicide
There's no way of avoiding the still months of winter outside, however. We can have our own summer paradise 365 days a year while also getting a bunch of Cannabis, some beautiful flowers and other plants in the process. How so? By starting an indoor garden of course! Sound like it's too complicated for you? Think again! There's a size and a way for everyone to do it. Sound too expensive? Think again! You can do it on any size budget.
Cannabis with regular seeds can take anywhere from 4-6 months depending on how long you vegetate them and the strains flowering time. While starting from a clone or a teen will give you a faster turn around. Want a harvest within 2-3 months? Grab some auto flowering seeds and you won't even have to change the light cycle to 12/12.
With winter lasting 4-5 months depending on where you are there is no better time to start a garden! Plant some regular / feminized seeds now and you can find your favorite pheno in time for next years outdoor crop! Plant some auto flowers and you'll be smoking your own stash before the end of winter. Buy regular seeds, find a male keeper and you can even start breeding your very own strains! The possibilities are endless! The cold temperatures outside will even help you on your cooling cost.
Why stop at cannabis, grow some flowers for the girls and non smokers in your life! Grow some cool cacti and exotic plants, you will truly appreciate walking in to a sea of green when you step in your garden. You will also spend your time in a very productive way and learn way more than you think along the way. It may even give you a whole new appreciation for the spring and summer! At the very least you are going to have a nice stash for summer!
If you are looking for some great seeds check out our Breeders section on our Directory. We have people offering everything from Regular Seeds, Feminized and Auto Flowers. You can also contact them for clones!
There is some seriously interesting science backing this up! Getting your hands dirty in the soil will put you in contact with a lot of bacteria's one of them being Mycobacterium vaccae. First discovered in 1964 and then cultured in the 1970's in Uganda in a region where people were being less affected by leprosy. Why is this relevant to this article? Well Mycobacterium vaccae has been shown to help build a resiliency to stress, depression ptsd amongst other things.
We are used to living in a bacteria rich environment, now we are increasing limiting the bacterias we come into contact with on top of our diets being more restricted and artificial. This is all making our immune systems weaker leaving more and more people suffering from inflammatory diseases. Depression, Anxiety and other mental illnesses and even physical diseases such as asthma have been linked to chronic inflammation! Turns out the old saying you are what you eat is actually very true.
A study conducted by Sage Colleges in Troy New York found that mice that were fed live Mycobacterium vaccae navigated the maze twice as fast with less anxiety and stress behavior than mice that were not. Another study completed at Henry Wellcome Laboratories for Integrative Neuroscience and Endocrinology, University of Bristol, Bristol, England, UK found that mice who were introduced to the bacteria had increased levels of serotonin and decreased anxiety.
If you don't already have an indoor garden set up, I hope this article inspires you to give it a shot. It's a really rewarding hobby that teaches you so much and provides you fruits (or in this case buds) for your labor.
*This Article Is Not Medical Advice.
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* Sources
This is really good content. Seasonal depression is real, very real.
Good job , and we would love to help add to it.
Thanks.