How Weather Affects Depression - An Empath’s View

Today, the world around me is a frozen wasteland. The leaves of trees have danced their way to the ground, leaving their parents barren. Water, turned to ice, highjacks the sidewalks, roadways, and grasslands.

There is no safe place to walk. The sun hides behind a thick screen of clouds, refusing to turn the world into a warm welcoming place.

When the ice storm came, I could feel it. I’m an empath; meaning I can feel the emotions of others, even across long distances. I know when someone is sick, angry, or afraid. It’s not uncommon for me to know how my mother or girlfriend feel when they are miles, sometimes hundreds of miles, away.

Emotions are energy projected into the world and carried on the wind. I can feel the energy of people. That energy is on the wind.

There are thousands, likely millions, like me. We are empathic.

It doesn’t help when we are prone to depression.

The wind carries the energy forward. The ice storm that carved its way across the country carries energy with it.

When storms come, I can feel them draining my energy as the wind pushes against the house. A train whistles, only it’s not a train. It’s the wind sliding between the seals of the old window frames.

I knew it would whistle long before it whistled.

When we’re young, we dismiss people who say, “There’s a storm brewin’. My knee hurts.”

Storms are energy, chaotic energy. They are a stew of atoms bombarding each other, propelling the particles in the air forward and pounding into the Earth. We are energy, too.

We have to eat to convert food into usable energy like pumping gasoline into a car. Take the gas away and the car dies. The car frame is still there. Every operational piece is there, but it cannot move.

Storm winds pull at the energy of my body. I can feel them before the storm starts. They push energy ahead of them and through my body.

Some might say, “Well, you saw the weather forecast.” However, I didn’t see the weather forecast.

Some might say, “You looked out the window.” However, we block our windows with light resistant curtains, because the sun and I hate each other. I have the nature of an owl. My friend is the moon.

Some might say, “Pressure decreases and increases causing pain in your joints.” This is true. Sometimes my fingers act up because of the changes in pressure, or a headache flares. I’m not talking about physical pain. I’m talking about energetic loss and depression.

They take energy. I can literally feel it being pulled away from my body as though a giant vacuum cleaner is pulling energy into the sky. I try to hold on, but then I feel the wind. The wind carries the anger, hate, and sadness of the world.

At the time of writing this, the US is going through a great deal of chaos. It’s all on the wind. Anger, sadness, jealousy, and hate all ride with the storms.

I feel those emotions. They depress me further.

If you feel this way, you’re not alone. We are all energy. We are all atoms that can split into smaller and smaller energetic particles. Those particles have energetic pulls on the world around us.

Some of us feel it more than others.

Weather affects this connection. Storms carry that energy. They push through the bonds that bind us, pulling us apart, and carrying us into the wind.

They make us tired, weakening our resolve, and letting the beast of depression take a hold of our mind.

It’s one reason I like winter. When cold sets in, atoms stop moving. The kinetic energy ceases to push the unseen world around. My mind goes quiet. Walking through the snow in the dead of night when the world is frozen is one of the most peaceful things I’ve ever done.

There’s no movement, no energy to feel. Pure peace and quiet.

Summer may be beautiful, but summer is energetic. Kinetic energy is everywhere, slowing only at night when the surrounding area sleeps. My mind quiets. It’s one reason I’m a night owl.

I used to wonder if there were others like me. Now I know. After years of fighting depression, I realize that many intuitive people, many empaths, also struggle with this illness.

If you feel the wind, feel the emotions of other people, you’re not alone. It’s not something that helps us fight depression, sometimes it makes the fight harder, but know you are not the only one who feels this way.

The weather affects our energetic bodies, but it’s not always a bad thing.

Some storms are full of happiness and wonder, revitalizing the world. Others are angry and consuming, pulling energy away from our bodies.

I can feel the storm’s approach. That’s my weapon against my fight with depression.

I know the storm is coming.

I can feel the chaos or peace it brings.

I can take action to prevent that chaos from taking me. Sometimes the storm wins, stealing my energy, and putting me to sleep. Other times, I win using my habits, the tools in my arsenal, to beat back the thief aiding depression and keep moving forward.

Many don’t believe in energy. Just like many don’t accept that mental illness is real.

Energy is there. Mental illness is there. People who feel energy and struggle with depression are there.

If you are one of these people, you are not alone. There are others fighting the same fight.

Sometimes that’s all we need. To know there are others.

It gives us a little more strength in the fight against depression.

And, if you can feel the storm, recognize the feeling and take action to keep your depression from taking you.

If you feel this away, if you feel the wind, remember you’re not alone. There are others like you.

- Will