Mental Health Monday: Surviving Winter in Cincinnati

What's the number one tip to survive the winter blues that doesn't involve getting on an air plane ?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're waking up with fifth in the morning. Kiss well,
good morning, it's mental health mondays on the show. How
do you feel better immediately? With what's going on around
us in Cinti as far as the weather goes. I
had this conversation multiple times last week, multiple about how
tired and sick of the cold and the dark and

(00:21):
the laundry list goes on about how far we are
from opening day, et cetera, et cetera, and the reality
has sunk in. So Lori Starpage is our licensed clinical counselor.
We brought her over from Tuesdays, which is where we
used to do make a date or break and now
we just kind of touch base to give you a
little little something something to feel better on a Monday
morning on your way into work. So good morning, Lorii.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
That was every person I talked to with in the
last five days said how deeply over it they were
about the cold and the temperature and it being February.
And although February shows up every single year on the calendar,
it doesn't take away from how like nah it can
feel inside your own light.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Absolutely, And I was one of those people last week too.
We had like that false spring and then the snow
came back, and it can feel really demoralizing when we're like, oh, okay,
we're out of this, and then we're reminded, no way,
not quite. And this year's weather in Cincinnati has been
I mean, it's been a lot. It's been our usual
challenge of like the gray, lack of sunshine, and then

(01:22):
we've had a lot of snow that's kept us inside.
And the main thing I want people to realize is
that the weather and the lack of sunlight impacts your
mental health. It impacts everybody's mental health. So it is
normal and I would say expected that people are feeling
over it. But one of the key things that they
can do to help themselves feel better is to make

(01:43):
sure they're getting sunlight, like actual sunlight on their skin.
So if you can take a second to be outside,
even if it's cold, even if it's dreary and the
sun is out, go and get those rays. Obviously, put
on sunscreen. You can still get a sunburn. You got
to take care of that skin, but that sun is
going to help you feel better. And if for some

(02:04):
reason you can't get access to the sun, another thing
you can do is We call them happy lights. They're
basically full spectrum UV lights and a lot of people
will actually turn these lights on and utilize them during
winters that we have in Cincinnati in the Midwest where
we can't get a lot of sunlight, and this can
mimic the sunlight, so it can help your body to

(02:25):
create those feel good chemicals that you get when you
have natural sun exposure. So that's another option if you
can't find the sun.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Notice how I do you didn't even bring up go
on Google flights dot com and look up a warm
weather ticket out of Cincinnati, because I get it, like
that would have been my first inclination to recommend. But
with the cost of everything at this moment, eggs included
booking a flight might not be an option, and I
understand that. So these are good options to have right now. Immediately.

(02:56):
Have you had someone that's come into your office and
you've set across from them and you're like, I think
you're okay, I just think you might need some actual sunlight.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Like that's a thing, right, Oh yeah, it's absolutely think
and Ohio is usually ranked as one of the places
where people have the lowest vitamin D, which means that
they're not getting enough sunlight. The other state interesting that's
low is Florida because they're inside because of the heat
all the time, so they have the opposite problem we do.
And I think it's really really important tip to your point.

(03:26):
We can't always just run away from a situation. Sometimes
we got to figure out ways to cope with it
on the ground, and that's where getting some extra sunshine
right now, I think can really help everybody. This is
a normal thing, it's nothing to be scared of, but
we do have to take care of ourselves a little
bit differently.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Lori sharp Page is our licensed clinical counselor and practicing THERAPI.
She comes on for mental health Mondays. You can follow
her at the Coping Queen right now. She's in North Dakota.
What's the sunlight there, Well, we're.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
Waiting for it to peek through. It hasn't quite shown
up yet, but hopefully I'm lucky I'll get some today.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
All right, we'll see you in studio next Monday.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
I appreciate you, gal, thank you.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
If you are looking to get some sunlight today, we'll
have a high of fifty degrees and there were at
least eighteen people in line to get car washes yesterday,
so I'm assuming that's going to be a case for
today as well. In the meantime, we're still commercial free
mental health mondays here on tip in the morning.