Day and night, shadow and sunlight, winter and summer … life is full of opposites and we are adjusting to them on and on. In summer we wish it were a little cooler, so we could do more work. In winter we wish days were longer and sunnier, so we would have more energy. All those wishes are expression of control we would like to have over natural phenomena. In reality, a wise thing to do is to adapt and expect less, when it is too hot or when the lack of sunlight is making our brain sluggish. One thing we can do is not make any big plans for winter, if we know that our brain responds with...

My husband surprised me with a question the other day: »Why are spring and autumn most problematic regarding your bipolar disorder? Does it have anything to do with star constellations and the movements of the planets and the moon?« I answered: »Maybe. I do not know much about astronomy. But I do know about chaos in my brain caused by seasonal change. …« When I was finished giving him an answer, he suggested I wrote a blog about it. I argued that there were numerous psychiatrists who have given more plausible and scientifically proven answers available on the internet. My explanation was too...