Every winter, I write a version of this post. I wrote it last year…and the year before…and the year before. Sometimes, the post comes in November; other times, it’s not until January. But every year, without fail, the winter season starts to impact me negatively. Maybe it’s the fact that the sun sets surpassing I’m finished with my work day. It could be that some years, the holidays are increasingly challenging than usual. Sometimes it’s just the unprepossessed if I’m stuff perfectly honest. Regardless, the wintertime brings well-nigh unique challenges, something that’s worth remembering this time of year.
What is SAD?
AD is a type of depression that’s related to changes in the seasons, with symptoms beginning and ending at about the same time of each year (November to March) which, for many of us are typically the winter months or the winter season. It affects over 500,000 people in the U.S.
It took me many years to learn that for me, the winter months unchangingly hit my mental health uneaten hard. It was increasingly difficult to maintain wellness, and harder to alimony a positive vein virtually my mental health journey. I unsupportable that since I had peepers year-round, there’s no reason that it would be worse, right? Wrong. Not that it needs to be said on this blog, but seasonal peepers is real. And it was surprising to learn that during this time of year, some symptoms of peepers were triggered increasingly often than usual.
The Link between Serotonin and SAD
During a recent study at the University of Copenhagen, scientists found that SAD may be caused by the serotonin transporter, or SERT, protein. Serotonin is a brain chemical responsible for maintaining mood balance. Scientists found that in winter, participants with SAD had 5% more SERT than in the summer, meaning more serotonin was being removed from their brains in winter, which can cause depression symptoms.
- Get sunlight whenever possible. Stepping outside or letting in sunlight through the window will increase your body’s serotonin levels, which balances your mood. Sunlight will also help brighten up the room, helping keep you more awake. This can be thought of as light therapy, and while some artificial sources, such as a light box, can help, sunlight is the brightest and most comprehensive when it comes to light sources, in other words, even with cloud cover, it is the best form of light.
- Don’t cut exercise out of your daily routine. Colder weather forces many people inside and can lead to excuses for not exercising. By exercising a few times a week, you’ll help release endorphins, a hormone that gives you a natural high that in turn keeps you in a happier mood and energetic. While lack of exercise might not be the root cause of SAD, it is certainly a contributor that compounds the effects of depression.
During the winter, it’s important to take extra care of yourself to avoid the chance of developing SAD. Maintaining a healthy daily routine of some specific habits is helpful at combating SAD. Here are some things you can do to help keep SAD away:
That might not sound like a large group, but that’s tens of millions of people who wits widow mental health challenges for a large portion of the timetable year. One thing I’ve learned in the many years writing this blog is how our mental health is impacted by the world virtually us. The winter months, and the holiday season in particular, create unique challenges that don’t exist at other times of the year. Whether you wits SAD or finger your mental health issues wilt exacerbated during the winter, both are equally valid and deserve to be treated as such.
There are several ways to powerfully treat SAD, as well as the many other widow mental health challenges of winter (which I hope to imbricate in a future blog post), but that’s not what I’d like my main takeaway to be today. Instead, I hope this post serves as a reminder to be kind to ourselves this time of year. We’re up versus a lot, and the stress and frantic pace of this time of year can make us finger like we’re not doing enough. For some people, not doing unbearable equals not being enough, and I want to shut that thinking lanugo as quickly as possible.
As we throne into a rented time of year, I hope you remember to be gentle with yourself. Your mental health matters and for some people, it matters increasingly this time of year. I’d moreover encourage anyone who’s struggling with their mental health to take this time to reach out to someone if they finger comfortable. This is a time of year when people connect, reconnect, and get the endangerment to spend time with people they don’t see as often — maybe this is your endangerment to share something you haven’t been worldly-wise to before.
Regardless, I hope that you remember the widow challenges of winter. If you need to do plane increasingly than usual to squint without your mental wellness, that’s alright – I’ll be doing the same! At the end of the day, we need to do what we can to take superintendency of ourselves, and that can transpiration daily. And not only is that okay, but it’s invaluable to our mental health.