Winter has come: brain weasels and my journal space

Seasonal depression hit me like a sledgehammer a few days ago. I'm coping, but it's a lot harder than usual. I was talking to a friend today and I mentioned that thing where you are so anxious-upset-whatever that it doesn't feel safe to go to sleep, even though sleep is probably something that would help your brain and my friend went OH THAT THING THANK YOU FOR NAMING IT. So yes, sleep is hard.

I'm having to do some things to cope with the current weight of the world, and I'd appreciate your help ~

• currently on as much of a news fast as I can manage with the news everywhere. It's fine if you want to talk about the news in your own space, but please don't mention current events here unless it's on a post specifically about a news item. (For others on news fasts, I'm trying to keep them behind magic cut-tags.)
• please do not link any of my posts (even public ones) out at the moment without checking with me first; I'm having trouble people-ing right now.
• writing is helping! I just keep getting stuck. talk to me about writing, though general awareness of "different brains work differently" is greatly appreciated.
• as always, cute photos of animals, humor (light and dark humor), poetry, amazing!science and other things that make the world worth living are amazing and I appreciate you sharing.

thanks for reading!