“You’re probably asking yourself, “what qualifies her to tell me how to survive Portland’s dreary months?” Well, nothing really. I am just another person, not originally from Portland, who found it necessary to create a strategy for preventing the Portland SADs. If this is helpful, great. If not, please feel free to find your own way. I will be cold either way.

Okay, you decided to keep reading. Good. Let’s do this.

So, I am originally from southern California. Pause for effect, sigh, groan, whatever. Yes, I am from California. So sorry. I know that my presence immediately bugs you if you are originally from the Northwest. To be fair, I have lived in Oregon for almost 13 years now. Before that, I lived in northern California for 7 years. Put together, that is just a bit over half of my life that I have not lived in southern California. Just saying…

Regardless, I am from southern California. I can’t deny it. And even though I lived in sunny So Cal (yes...we called it that) for less than half of my life, I believe that I developed a thin skin for cold weather and an inherent need for sunshine. It’s in my blood. I remember when the thought of moving to Portland occurred to me, my partner at the time said to me, “it’s only sunny like 70 days out of the year.” We were living in Ashland, Oregon at the time, but were visiting Portland for a wedding. You may know Ashland for events such as the Shakespeare festival or that it has an impressive 198+ days of sunshine each year. In case you were wondering, the national average is 205 sunny days per year. In any case, we were on a hike in the Columbia Gorge. I responded, “what do you mean?” I looked around at the beautiful, clear sky above the Columbia River. “It’s sunny and blue skies today.” He looked at me with pity and replied, “but look! Even when it’s sunny, there is a twinge of gray in the sky. It’s never fully sunny here. Even the sunny days are darkened by the gray.” I thought he was just being spiteful or trying to convince me not to move here. Years later, after surviving at least six Portland winters, I would travel to southern California during the summertime. Your knowledge of the season is important for comparison purposes. Typically, I visit my So Cal family during the holidays, in the midst of the Portland winter months. That particular year, I ventured down there in July...during one of the sunniest months in Portland. I departed from PDX airport with the glare of northwest sunshine fresh in my recent memory. As I stepped off the plane in Long Beach, I was shocked by the power of the sun. It felt 10 times brighter than the sunshine I had left in Portland. In that moment, I remembered what my previous partner had said to me and immediately conceded defeat to him.

Okay, so even our sunny days are slightly darker than in other places. How is one supposed to survive this slightly gray city? Here are some tips that I have discovered along the way. Hopefully, they will help you as much as they’ve helped me.

Survival Tip #1: Be outdoorsy.

When the sun appears, get your ass outside. This is actually a Portlander secret that was taught to me during my first few months in Portland. In southern California, people don’t appreciate the sunshine. They have so much of it; they just don’t even realize how rich they are in weather terms. They spend their sunny days inside of air-conditioned spaces. It’s the Californian way. But in Portland, we understand the brevity of those sunny moments. When I first moved here in early February, I remember feeling baffled by Portlanders hanging out in t-shirts and sunglasses on slightly sunny bar patios in the 35 degree weather. Though it was freezing outside, they were there. Basking in the sun with pale skin exposed, they enjoyed those precious rays of sunshine. Flash forward to present time, I now completely understand. “It’s supposed to be sunny this weekend,” I say to my husband when I notice that it will be partly cloudy and 34 degrees on Saturday. “Let’s go for a hike; it’s going to be beautiful.” And it is beautiful. Because it’s not raining and it’s not totally gray. So, get your ass outside.

Survival Tip #2: Play Opposite Day!

Remember that game when you were younger? You ran up to your best friend and said, “I hate you. Just kidding, it’s Opposite Day.” While it was not the most clever game as an adolescent, it is a super helpful method for reducing distress as an adult. This is a tool that I have borrowed/stolen (oops) from Marsha Linehan, queen of DBT. It’s pretty simple. Do the opposite of what you feel. If you feel sad and low, force yourself to do something energetic and upbeat. Throw on Queen (the musical artist, not Marsha) and go on a short run. We often like to indulge our emotions such as watch a sad movie when we are feeling depressed or listen to Alanis Morrisette when we are angry (apologies for this old reference, I grew up in the 90’s). When I am feeling especially low, I will throw on an episode of Frasier or Friends. The inane comedy of these two shows is just enough to tip the sad scales for me. If I am feeling really depressed, I will throw on an episode of stand-up comedy or read my husband’s book of Irish witticisms. Get creative. I was really frustrated with my husband the other day, approaching livid. Instead of going into that emotion (yelling at him, slamming things), I put on Bambi by Jidenna and started to bake cookies. Baking cookies is such an emotional, sensory experience. It is distracting enough because you need to measure out ingredients (do math), which in turn puts your brain into a more rational space. The smell of the cookie dough may remind you of baking with a parent or another safe adult; it may inspire a happy memory from your youth. You taste the cookie dough (it’s a must regardless of salmonella) and receive the immediate gratification of sweetness in your mouth. You awaken your other senses as you smell the delicious scent of chocolate baking in your oven. It’s really difficult to remain angry when you bake cookies. Give it a try.

Survival Tip #3: Embrace the Portland winter. Don’t avoid it. Don’t delude yourself into thinking that it’s going to be a shorter winter or a sunnier month than last year. It’s pretty much always the same. Despite global warming, we Portlanders endure about three solid months of gray skies, rainy weather, and freezing temperatures. These three months are sandwiched in between two months of sporadic sunshine and rainy/cold days. Every year, someone says to me, “I think it’s sunnier and warmer this month than last year.” And I want to say, no it’s not. You just have Portland weather amnesia. Similar to the pregnancy amnesia that most new mothers will talk about experiencing, Portland weather amnesia allows us to forget about the horrors of the frigid and rainy weather that we experience each year (just like new mothers may forget the painful and upsetting pregnancy symptoms). When we wake up to 70 degrees and sunshine in late October, we forget about the fact that we always get those random sunny days mixed in with the horrifically cold, Portland weather. We have these moments of hope that are ultimately crushed by the Pacific Northwest. It laughs at us as we imagine a sunny and warm spring in March. Hehe...it snickers. You’ll believe the same next year. Don’t be fooled! Just accept it. Radical acceptance...another tool borrowed/stolen from Marsha. Accept what is...don’t try to change what you cannot change.

Survival Tip #4: When all else fails, trick yourself with real things.

Along with acceptance, it helps to create fun activities and things that you can only do when the weather cools. My work colleague, another native Californian, recently told me about her strategy to fight the winter blues. She said that she had to give herself something to be excited about in the colder months. She decided to create a “boot week” on Instagram in which she showcased a different boot each day of the week as her acknowledgment that summer had finally ended. Warm weather goes away, boots come out. In another example, my best friend and her husband bust out the crock pot in late October. They get excited to make hearty stews and delicious soups. All food items that are too hot and heavy to enjoy in the summer. My friend says that autumn is her favorite cooking time. We plan friend dates to hunker down and watch cool shows on Netflix while eating hearty stews with root vegetables and marinated pork.

For me, winter equals more snuggling with my husband and my fur child. In the summer months, I cannot spend too much time close to my partner. As we lie in bed at night, I push him away as he tries to spoon. He’s like an oven, one of those people who emits heat. And in our bedroom with one fan (we have not given in to the air conditioning fad yet), I refuse to snuggle. But in the winter, I am right back in his arms. It’s like I’m another appendage on his body.

What do you love to do in the autumn and winter? What makes you happy? For some people, it is events such as pumpkin picking and the corn maze at Sauvie Island. For others, we may look forward to holidays with friends and family such as Thanksgiving. Whatever it may be, latch onto it. Hold it in your hands gently as if it is an unusual flower you have just picked on your walk and you want to bring it home for your sweetie to see. Exalt it. Make it so special that your brain begins to believe that winter is better than summer, that the cold weather is better than those warm, sunny days.

Oh yeah...I almost forgot. There’s all the other usual things…Portland hikes in fall, autumn leaves, winter sports like snowboarding and skiing, snowpocalypse, Vitamin D, self-care, acupuncture, light therapy, mental health therapy, antidepressants (if prescribed by your doc), yoga, and support from friends and family. Those things are important and can be useful too, I suppose. So, try them all and report back. And see ya on the other side Portlanders. #almostsummer #notreally #yeswecan

Written by Kristen McCormick, LPC