I hear the term all the time. Seasonal depression this, seasonal depression that, everyone’s super depressed and in desperate need of a pumpkin spice latte or whatever new heart attack in a cup Starbucks or Dunkin’ is selling. I’ve never understood the term and I quite frankly never will. 

While I do appreciate a day that’s nice with sunny skies and warm weather, I’d rather have the opportunity to wear one of my many coats and do work in a coffee shop while watching people walk by and just take in the environment. I can often be quoted as saying that life is a headache and a nice day only amplifies that feeling. Waking up and constantly wondering what’s next, being active and involved is what is expected of people on a ‘nice, sunny day’ and you tend to put off tasks like work for later in lieu of not wasting a good day sitting inside. I hate nice days sometimes, since I am incredibly work-oriented and seeing other people having fun is a bit of a turn off. Seeing gloomy weather, however, lets me know I’m not trading anything off for working. There’s no fun I’m not having since nobody else is having fun either. So misery might be in the air, but productivity is a lovely offering in place of it.

And there’s fun in gray days, considering they can be spent inside and you can do things like make hot chocolate and watch films, have people over to play board games, do some decorating or clean up your space. People always associate anything not lively with dreary and that is certainly not the case. I find that seasonal depression can sometimes be finding something to blame when we want to procrastinate, considering I myself once used it as an excuse. Motivation and schedules make it so that there’s always something to be done, whether for now or in the future, which gives you reason to carry on with your assignments and tasks in the moment.

Instead of focusing on how bad the day looks and how crappy the weather may be, focus on rearranging time to do tasks you wouldn’t otherwise do so that when the weather is better, you’re a much more free and less stressed person (I’m stressed all the time so this doesn’t apply to me), which makes for fun not overshadowed by the impending doom of an exam you’re not ready for or a project you wish you spent an extra hour completing. Gloomy weather just provides an opportunity for you to make the most of the time that can’t be spent doing anything else that is rotting. That’s where I believe that seasonal depression a marketing ploy.

Netflix and literally every other streaming subscription make money from getting users to pay for content and those users need to have time to consume said content. Terrible weather provides you with the time, and apparently puts you in a terrible mood as well. Easy sell for Netflix’s comedy films. Whatever else companies want to sell to you using seasonal depression as a marketing tactic, they can. Comfort foods, blankets, sweaters, anything to sell so you can feel validated in your belief that you feel down because of seasonal depression. The weather can suck sometimes, but it can either be a positive to an unprecedented extent or be a negative to a really low point. What you choose for it to be is completely up to you.

But what if you don’t want to be productive? What if you genuinely feel down on a day that just seems to have bad weather? Then take it. Take the day for yourself if it means you will be your best self tomorrow, fully recharged and ready to get back to the routine. Breaks are healthy and are needed to keep the body and mind performing at their best. Acknowledge your need to relax, but don’t blame the weather for stressing you out. The clouds have no impact on your procrastination. You control every aspect of yourself and are entirely responsible for your actions, or lack of them.