Mental Health Archives - Page 3 of 3

5 Strategies That Help Seasonal Depression

Don’t forget to turn your clocks back to…seasonal depression? Daylight savings time ending, while just a day on the calendar, can signify the beginning of a season, with shorter days, colder nights, and the holidays combining to create the perfect trifecta of dread.

As a mental health therapist, and someone who used to struggle with seasonal depression, I have done research to better understand this disorder that so many people struggle with. This post is all about understanding and managing seasonal depression.

What is Seasonal Depression?

Seasonal depression, clinically known as Seasonal Affective Disorder, is a mood disorder that impacts at least 5% of Americans every year. People with seasonal depression tend to begin feeling low mood, poor energy, anxiety, and irritability in the beginning of Fall, and by the time the holidays arrive, these symptoms can develop even further into hopelessness, changes in eating and sleeping patterns, feelings of exhaustion, and no longer enjoying things that normally bring them joy.

If this sounds like a familiar feeling, you may be struggling with seasonal depression. If it doesn’t quite fit your experience, it may be helpful to know that many people experience a milder form of winter blues, which can be just as debilitating, while others encounter grief due to holiday memories or expectations, loss of daylight activities, or feeling like their year is coming to an end.

What Causes Seasonal Depression?

Lack of sunlight is a big culprit of seasonal depression. You may have grown up hearing things like, “People in Seattle have higher levels of depression and suicide because they have less sunlight.” This is not entirely inaccurate. Sunlight helps to regulate our serotonin (one of our happy chemicals), helps to provide Vitamin D, which also affects our serotonin and energy levels, and increases our melatonin levels, which helps us get proper sleep at night.

The lack of sunlight could be impacting you at a biological level, especially considering that many people, specifically women, already struggle with low vitamin D.

Our circadian rhythm also has a big impact on our daily living and mood. Our bodies work on a 24-hour cycle, naturally shifting hormones, regulating energy levels, and changing heartrate to match the time of day. Light and dark affect how our internal clock adjusts, and if you struggle with seasonal depression, your body might be struggling to adapt to the changes in season.

One way to know if your circadian rhythm is off is to notice how your energy levels are throughout the day, and how restfully you are sleeping at night. Ideally, our bodies will have energy in the morning, peak at some point during the day, and slowly decrease in energy as our bodies move toward bedtime.

It’s important to note that other things could impact energy levels during the day, such as stress, trauma, nutrition, and exercise. It may be hard to discover the exact cause, but ultimately, they are all connected to one another.

Lastly, our thinking patterns might have a big impact on how our bodies respond to the change in season. Thinking patterns can affect the chemicals in our brains and the chemicals in our brains can affect our thinking patterns. Even with this “chicken or the egg” debate, we know that there is a correlation between thoughts and mood. Many people with seasonal depression express experiencing negative thinking patterns about their own bodies (I hate that I’m so tired!), the holidays (ugh, the holidays are here again), the lack of daytime (it’s so darrrrrk), or many other things, that can bring their mood down.

What can I do to help seasonal depression?

Luckily there are many tools that can help make seasonal depression feel less depressing. Let’s address these symptoms at the root causes.

force perspective photography of hand and sun

Get more sun!

No, we can’t make the sun be out longer than it is, but we can do our best to get as much sunlight as possible. Wherever possible, whether it’s sitting outside in the morning sun (bundle up if you’re in a colder state!), sitting by a window at work or home, or going for an outside walk at lunchtime, take advantage of whatever sunlight is available to you.

If you work somewhere that hogs all your daylight hours and doesn’t provide much flexibility to get outside, there is the option of purchasing a light therapy lamp. These come in all shapes and sizes, perfect for sitting on the desk in an office or at the dinner table, and can help simulate sunlight, increasing serotonin and melatonin levels. Additionally, if you have lightbulbs in your home, consider changing them out for a white natural light, instead of a yellow tone. This can trick the brain into thinking it’s still daylight outside.

Boost Vitamin D.

Vitamin D is readily available in the form of vitamins or supplements and can also be increased by the food we eat. Foods that are high in vitamin D include fish, like salmon, tuna, and sardines, egg yolk, mushrooms, milk (cow or soy), and orange juice.

Improve circadian rhythm.

Other than sunlight, there are many things that can affect circadian rhythm.

Try and keep a consistent sleep routine, winding down at night and getting in bed around the same time, even if you aren’t sleepy.
Get a dawn simulator if you wake up to a dark morning. Dawn simulators can simulate the rising sun, slowly increasing light as it’s time for you to wake up.
Reduce light before bedtime. This includes phone and TV! When you begin winding down, start to adjust the lights in your home so your brain knows that it’s time to start calming down. Try doing things that don’t require as much light stimulation, like meditating, reading a book with a small nightlight, or stretching. (Lifehack: most phones have a bluelight filter, which is thought to help reduce the negative effects of the light when using your phone at night).
Avoid caffeine and sugar later in the day. While most won’t be willing to give up sugar or caffeine completely, myself included, these can significantly impact your energy levels. Try limiting caffeine to the morning time and reducing sugar intake closer to bedtime to avoid a boost of energy when you’re trying to sleep.
Exercise during the day. Exercise also has a direct impact on Serotonin and other brain chemicals that regulate our mood and circadian rhythm. Exercising during the “peak awake hours” can help our body to know what times of day it needs to adjust the energy levels around.
Short naps only. Naps can definitely confuse the body into not knowing when to sleep. Naps can be a great way to rest and recharge but try and keep them short (around half an hour) and in the afternoon, so that your body doesn’t confuse it with actual sleep time.

Do activities in the dark

You get out of work and…it’s dark already. You can’t go bike riding, unless you get a helmet light, it’s too cold for watersports, and you already feel like it’s too late to make plans. Try to remember that at this same time during the Summer, you likely still had energy to make plans or go out. Your brain, thinking that it’s night, may start to make you feel tired and ready to wind down. Try to explore what is available in your area. Find a safe place to go for walks or jog at night, find indoor activities such as pool or bowling, meet your friends for dinner or the movies. Let your brain know that just because it is dark outside, does not mean it is time to shut down.

Boost Mental Health Overall

Seasonal depression is not an isolated experience, meaning that all the other things you normally struggle with are still there. There are a quite a bit of things that can improve mental health, like journaling, socializing, daily gratitude expressions, yoga, and breathing techniques. As cliché as these things seems, they do give your mental health a boost!

If your low mood and negative thoughts around the winter or fall are caused by more than the things mentioned above, it may be good to explore talk therapy. The holidays and winter can be filled with grief, expectations, stress around family, trauma triggers and more. These things may be exacerbated by seasonal depression, and it could be helpful to get a helping hand.

Remember, it is difficult to challenge thinking patterns, adjust circadian rhythm, and to do things when your energy levels are already low. Give yourself grace and know that some days will be harder than others, and you are doing the best that you can!

How to Change your Reality

As a mental health therapist, I’ve experienced firsthand how shifting perspective, changing your story, and making small adjustments can have a major impact in how people experience their reality. This blog post is all about using the tools you ALREADY have to change your reality.

The Story You Tell Yourself

Imagine you are having a terrible day. Your partner took the last of the coffee, not even bothering to consider you, so you have to go out of your way to get coffee, already running late. On the way to work, some jerk cuts you off, making you slam on your brakes and spill your coffee. When you get there, your boss makes a comment to everyone that we need to do better with timeliness. How passive aggressive, you were only a little late! Because you’ve had such a bad morning, the rest of your day is filled with little irritants and nuisances. When you get home, you’re short-tempered with your partner for messing up your whole day. Instead of picking up on this and apologizing, they just ignore you. Don’t they know emotional withholding is abusive?? You go to bed tense and angry.

Now imagine the same day this way. You wake up and realize that your partner took the last of the coffee. They must’ve been running late too! You go get some coffee on the way and are enjoying the delicious Starbucks coffee, a nice break from the normal home coffee, when someone cuts you off and you have to slam on your brakes! Aw dang, you spilled your coffee. You wonder what was going on with them where they didn’t see you. Maybe it’s a new driver? Maybe they are having a bad day and are flustered? Maybe they got distracted with the kids in the back seat? Who knows. You get to work and your boss mentions that everyone needs to do better with timeliness. Yikes! You wonder if he’s talking about you. Then again, a lot of people are late all the time. He never seemed to care before. You wonder if maybe his boss or a customer said something to him. Your day has the usual small nuisances. You get home and mention to your partner that your morning was a bit off. Your partner responds that they too had an off morning! You go to bed with a plan to leave early and get more coffee tomorrow.

Both stories are filled with the same events, the only difference is the way you perceived and reacted to them. These are small examples, but our entire lives are filled with stories we are making up in our heads. It’s impossible to have all the information all the time, so our brain is working hard to fill in the gaps. The gaps are filled in with our core beliefs and past experiences, most of which are not conscious, but they impact our behavior anyways.

This isn’t about pretending problems don’t exist, because sometimes they do. It’s about not creating more problems when that may not be reality. So how do we change our narrative?

Core Beliefs

Let’s start with understanding core beliefs. Core beliefs typically stem from childhood experiences. If I perceived myself experiencing rejection as a kid, then I might have started to become super aware of perceived rejection. Because of that, every time I thought someone was rejecting me, I marked it as just more proof that I am not loveable. Again, this core belief building is typically subconscious. However, these small experiences can create core beliefs that follow us into adulthood. Core beliefs generally boil down to the same type of statements, like “I don’t matter” or “I’m powerless” or “I’m unlovable.” They can also be toward others, like “People are untrustworthy.”

For example, if my core belief is that I’m unlovable, how often might I be painting the world with that perspective? Whenever a friend doesn’t call me after a while, I might think, “See, I knew they didn’t care about me,” instead of, “I wonder if they are busy or going through something.” I don’t know which one is true but making an assumption that is less personal can feel a lot less hurtful.

You see, if I assume my friends don’t care about me, then I might not reach out to them or I might even push them away. This might make them think, “Hmm, I wonder if they are okay,” and prompt them to reach out. More often than not, they might think, “I guess they don’t want to be my friend anymore” or “They are being really hurtful, I don’t really want to be around them.” This will then further the core belief that I am unlovable, and the cycle continues.

It is really difficult to challenge a core belief, because it can be so ingrained in everything we are doing. Step one is to bring awareness to how often your narrative is coming from a negative core belief. The way to do this is to ask yourself, “What story am I telling myself?” This is another way to recognize what details of your story you are making up. Maybe the person driving the car is a jerk, but you won’t really ever know, so you can choose to make up a different story.

Sharing and Requesting Information

The next step would be to ask questions and give feedback. Maybe your partner is emotionally withholding. Maybe if you ask them, they tell you “Oh, I assumed you wanted some alone time to cool off” or “I was nervous to talk to you, because you seemed angry.” Rarely will it be “I just wanted to punish you.”
(Sometimes there are deep toxic patterns in people, and if that is the case, it may be best to explore ending that relationship).

two women sitting on chairs beside window

Personal Patterns

Lastly, explore where you may have created unintentional patterns and work to adjust them. Sometimes if you have a core belief, you allow things in relationships that you then have to reprogram. If my core belief is that I’m unlovable, then I might have allowed people to take advantage of my time or make jokes at my expense, while deep down harboring resentment that they do so. When I start to change my patterns, people might get confused, upset, or think they did something wrong. This is rarely because they are bad people, but rather because they have their own subconscious belief system that is driving their patterns. Having open conversations about these patterns is ideal. However, that may not always be possible. If the people surrounding you are furthering your negative core beliefs, and are unwilling to listen to feedback, then you may again need to explore changing the people around you.

Changing your core belief system can be challenging work and is much of the process that people explore and work through in therapy. Oftentimes, it can get more complex and complicated as you continue to dive deep. If you notice you need some guidance when trying to discover or adjust, reach out to a mental health therapist who can partner with you in changing your narrative!

How to Regulate your Emotions

As a mental health therapist, I have been sharing these tips and tools with clients for years. I have seen what works, what doesn’t, and what changes make a long-term impact. This post is all about learning to regulate your emotions in a new way.

Emotions are Your Friends

Emotions can sometimes feel overwhelming, unmanageable, and even scary. While emotions are part of your body’s natural response to your external world, they can often be looked at as something to manage or get rid of. Feel-good emotions, like happiness, are typically praised and sought after, where less pleasant emotions are cast as bad or unwanted. In order to regulate your emotions more efficiently, however, start to think about how every emotion could be understood and worked with in a way that is peaceful, instead of in a way that feels like an inner conflict.

Emotions can be seen as negative when they’re viewed as a problem, which often happens with anger and anxiety. However, all emotions occur in your body as a response to something and exist to serve a functional purpose. Some emotions are easier to understand, like happiness, which exists to let you know that what you are doing feels good, and you can continue to do that thing. Happiness, like all emotions, is temporary and will come and go based on your external environment. Many people will respond to happiness in the way that it is intended, by seeking more happiness and trying to increase the experiences that activate that emotion. What if we treated all the emotions like we treat happiness, understanding what it does and responding in the way that it is asking?

Anger

Anger is bad. Anger management. Control your anger. Anger gets a bad rep as the bully emotion that makes us feel bad and act in ways that we wouldn’t dream of acting otherwise. Anger tells us, “You’re being wronged!” Anger might also tell us, “Stick up for yourself!” Anger can be tied up with aggression, encouraging us to push, yell, or say and do hurtful things. If anger was your friend, how do you make sense of this behavior?

Look at anger as the overprotective friend. This friend thinks that something might hurt or is hurting you and is reacting as a way for you to get rid of the problem. Sometimes, anger is protecting you from a situation or person that makes you feel powerless, and it is giving you power to respond. Oftentimes, anger is protecting you from a different underlying emotion, like fear or hurt, that it doesn’t want you to feel.

Working with anger looks like asking it, “What are you protecting me from?” If it is something like a harmful relationship, then maybe listen to the need to protect yourself and explore different ways to do that (i.e., boundaries or possibly leaving the relationship). If it is protecting you from another emotion, ask the anger to step aside, and explore what other emotions are coming up. Once your body recognizes that you no longer need to be protected, then anger should start to subside on its own.

Anxiety

Anxiety is the number one emotion that brings people into therapy, many with the idea that having anxiety makes them mentally ill. Because of this stigma, many people have the belief that they shouldn’t feel anxiety at all and have the goal of getting it to go away completely. However, the emotion of anxiety is necessary for survival, it is just often overresponding to perceived threats. If anxiety was your friend, imagine it as the nervous friend who believes that you are in danger, even when you aren’t.

Working with anxiety looks like asking it, “What is the threat?” Sometimes, the threat is very real, like the possibility you might fail a test, the feeling that a friend is distancing themselves from you, or even the threat of bodily harm or death. When these threats are real, anxiety can give you the ability to focus on the threat, give you the energy to respond to threat, or the strength to fight or flee from the threat. If the threat is not real, like a past trauma trigger or an overactive fear of judgement (or something similar), then you can respond to the anxiety with self-soothing strategies, like self-talk or breathing techniques.

Other Emotions

Every emotion serves a functional purpose and comes and goes like waves as your external stimuli changes. Other emotions and their functions include:

Sadness– You are grieving the loss of something. It prompts you to connect with others to make meaning of and process the loss.

Jealousy– You want something that someone else has. If it is realistic to obtain, you can work toward obtaining it. If it is not, you work through the grief of accepting that you cannot obtain it.

Boredom– You are under-stimulated. Find new ways to stimulate your brain

There are many other emotions that impact us daily, many occurring at the same time. The more self-awareness you have around what your emotions are telling you, the more peacefully you can respond and regulate your emotions.

Remember all emotions are good emotions. Emotions are our friends.

Therapy can help you dig deeper into these emotions and understand better where they come from, giving you a sense of peace and control over your own body and mind.

Click here to locate a local therapist near you!