Days Get Shorter and Your Energy Depletes
Our 3 Approaches to Seasonal Depression
Every October, people say they were doing fine a few weeks ago, and now they cannot explain why they feel so heavy. They are sleeping more and feeling less rested. Food is either boring or the only thing that helps. Plans that used to seem pleasant now sound exhausting. And underneath all of it is a quiet worry… is something wrong with me?
Usually, the honest answer is this. Your brain is responding to a real change in the world, and it is doing it in a way that is common, predictable, and treatable.
Step 1 for Low Energy
Get outside within the first hour of waking, even if it is gray. Keep your wake time steady seven days a week. Do not wait to feel motivated before you move your body. Tell one person how you are actually doing. And if this has lasted more than two weeks and is getting in the way of work, relationships, or basic care of yourself, talk to a therapist. You do not need to hit rock bottom to deserve help.
The rest of this post explains why those things matter, because understanding what is happening tends to take some of the fear out of it. There is also something else that happens in fall. The year starts to feel like it is running out. Goals you set in January get audited. The holidays come into view, with all the family dynamics and expectations they carry. For a lot of people, October is when the emotional load quietly stacks up.
Step 2 for Low Light
Light does more than help you see. It sets your internal clock, and that clock controls when you feel alert, when you feel hungry, and when you feel sleepy. When mornings get darker and evenings arrive earlier, that clock drifts. For some people the drift is barely noticeable. For others it shows up as heaviness, low energy, carb cravings, trouble concentrating, and a pull to withdraw from people.
This is not weakness, and it is not a character flaw. It is biology meeting the calendar. Some people experience a milder seasonal dip. Others meet the criteria for seasonal depression, which is a real form of depression that follows a pattern with the time of year. Either way, the symptoms are the same symptoms depression always brings. They just have a season attached.
Step 3 for improving low energy
Morning light is the single most useful habit. Ten to twenty minutes outside soon after waking tells your brain the day has started. If you cannot get outside, sit by the brightest window you have. Some people benefit from a light therapy box, which is worth asking a doctor or therapist about.
A steady wake time matters more than a steady bedtime. Sleeping in on weekends feels like recovery, but it pushes your clock later and makes Monday harder. Pick a wake time you can keep most days and protect it.
Movement comes before motivation, not after. Depression tells you that you will exercise once you feel better. In practice, it works the other way around. A fifteen-minute walk counts. Doing it with someone counts double.
Stay connected on purpose. Withdrawal is one of depression’s favorite moves, because isolation makes everything worse and then confirms the story that nobody would want you around anyway. You do not need to be social all the time. You need to keep a few real contacts alive, especially when you least feel like it.
Notice the thoughts, not just the mood. Low mood tends to arrive with a narrator that sounds certain: nothing will change, I always do this, everyone else is fine. Those are symptoms talking. Writing them down and asking whether they would hold up in court is a small habit with a surprisingly large effect.
When to reach out
If your mood has been low most days for two weeks or more, and it is affecting how you function or how you treat yourself, it is time to talk to someone. That is not a crisis threshold. It is a maintenance threshold, the way you would see a dentist for a tooth that has hurt for two weeks.
Therapy for depression is practical. We look at what is happening in your body, your routines, your relationships, and your thinking, and we work on the pieces that are keeping you stuck. Many people start to feel movement within a few weeks. If a seasonal pattern is part of your story, we plan for it, so that next October you are ahead of it instead of caught by it.
Seasonal Depression Ideas
5 Ideas on How to Start Now Before It’s Too Dark
By Bluestone Psychiatric Services
It’s a weird time of the year. We wonder if maybe “next week” the weather will warm up. Or possible our winter mood will improve after the holidays. Are there days when you leave for work in the dark and return home in the dark? It can be a difficult time for our moods with shorter daylight and darker evenings.
- Each year, over 10 million Americans experience mild to severe symptoms of seasonal affective disorder (SAD).
You may wonder is your low winter mood being impacted? Is it just part of a situational experience or is it more complex like seasonal affective disorder (SAD).
Five Ideas to Change the Seasonal Pattern of Depression
- Turn Off Auto Pilot – We have trudge along allowing our auto pilot to take the path of least resistance and stimulation. Turn it off and start savoring what is around you. Look for beauty and pleasant moments before they pass you by. Seek thankfulness and be grateful for what you do have then focusing on what you don’t.
- Engage the Elements – When it is snowing, cold and dark we often cocoon up; hibernating until “it’s over”. Yet, is counter-intuitive to avoid the elements. Instead, place yourself in the outside. Dress warmly and experience the wind, the cold, the snow. Use your physical feeling experience to be mindful of the world around you.
- Find the Light – Sunlight can activate specific vitamins in your system as well as regulate the amount of melatonin in your body, both of which are connected with your moods. If you are able find opportunities, despite the cold or wet, to get outside. Some research suggests the morning light is best, but anytime you can make time to get outside during these short daylight times will help.You can also add full spectrum light to your house. The National Institute of Health recommends a 10000 lux exposure for 30 minutes. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3181778/)
- Connect the Dots – Picture the people in your life as dots. Look for chances to connect those dots by making visits to those people. Plan a lunch, take a walk, go to a movie, or get some coffee. The more dots you connect the better your mood picture will be. If you know the winter impacts your mood, have one of your dots (aka friends) hold you accountable to get out and be social.
- Medication to Soothe the Intensity – supplement the above techniques with psychiatric medicine. Our team of psychiatric medication providers enjoys connecting with people interested in making a change. NIH continues to recommend this approach, “Data emerging from [placebo-controlled] trials has led to the recommendation of the SSRIs sertraline and fluoxetine as first-line treatments of SAD.”
SAD expert Dr. Kelly Rohan defined the disorder as, “a regular seasonal pattern of major depressive episodes during the fall and winter months with periods of full improvement in the spring and summer.” Maybe at first, it didn’t seem so bad; nothing that binge watching your Netflix show and some well placed sweet treats couldn’t manage. But a few weeks later the mood remains. If this is the case, try a few of some well practiced techniques to make a change. If you find your mood to be impacting your daily functioning at home, at work or in public, please contact Bluestone Psychological and Psychiatric Services. We have a variety of passionate, caring individuals whom can walk alongside you during this struggle.
Additional contributions by David A. Morris, LCSW
and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3181778
More on Depression
Depression is a serious medical condition, but it often goes undetected until the patient is moved to do something drastic under its influence, like self-cutting or a suicide attempt. Here are some signs to look for which indicate a person suffers from depression and needs professional help:
You No Longer Derive Joy from Your Interests
We all have hobbies that provide us with joy and an interest in life. Whether it’s a sport, an art form or pop culture consumption, there is always something you do to kick back after working hard at your job all day. These hobbies and interests are what make life worth living. If you begin to feel you’re no longer interested in them and constantly experience listlessness and an absence of joy, it may be time to seek help.
Instead of Therapy, You Self-Medicate
Some people try to deal with feelings of pain and sadness with drugs and alcohol. If you find yourself consuming large quantities of medicine without getting a prescription from a doctor, remind yourself that you are only succeeding in temporarily blocking the pain out in a drug-induced stupor instead of getting cured. If you want to genuinely get better, you will need to go to a licensed professional who will tell you which drugs, if any, you should be taking to deal with your problems.
Depression Starts Affecting Work
One of the most common symptoms of depression is when you no longer feel strong enough to face the world. This can result in your shutting out the difficult parts of your life by not leaving your house, even to go to work. This behavior has a very negative effect, both in the short term in terms of feeding your paranoia, and in the long term in terms of affecting your financial independence and professional reputation.
You Spend Too Much Time Fantasizing
When real life carries no joy, often we try to take refuge in an imaginary world of our own making. We might try to lose ourselves in video games, movies or online chat forums, but all we’re doing is temporarily avoiding our rapidly mounting real-life problems. If you find yourself spending too much time lost in daydreams as a way to push away reality, it’s a strong sign that you will need outside help from a professional to deal with your depression.
Other People Notice Your State
You may try to convince yourself that you are merely going through a bad patch and that your problems are nothing serious, but what about when your issues start affecting those close to you, and they begin to comment on it? This is a clear sign that your problems are much more serious than you had imagined, and need to be addressed with the help of a professional. Don’t be ashamed to take your relatives into your confidence. You will need their support to get better.
You Consider Self-Harm instead of Seeking Help
There is never, and I mean NEVER, a good reason to try to hurt yourself. The impulse to injure your body or take your own life is a result of long-term depression and a general feeling of helplessness. You feel you don’t control your own life and can never experience happiness again, but this is not true. Talk to a professional, take help from relatives, and get the medical assistance you need to get back to your normal life. Life is never perfect for anyone, but amidst all the difficulties, there are still many new experiences to be enjoyed that make life worth living. If depression is affecting you, or your loved one, you can contact us and get matched to a therapist to meet your specific needs.