- Get a light box. A light box, or more formally, a phototherapy light, is generally both the most helpful and the most recommended treatment for seasonal affective disorder or ‘winter blues’. The cost of one is usually between forty to a hundred and fifty dollars and simple google search will bring up hundreds of results for places to purchase them. Though most people use their light boxes for about thirty minutes a day, bear in mind that everyone is different and you may need more or less time in front of yours. It may take a little while to figure out what amount of time that is most effective for you.
- Get your vitamin D levels tested. A vitamin D deficiency can play a pretty big role in seasonal depression. If it turns out that you do have a deficiency, you can get over the counter supplements at virtually every drug store, Target, and hippy apothecary in America.
- Get outside. While this is most helpful on sunny days, going outside when it’s cloudy is still a lot better than not going outside at all. Don’t worry if you have to bundle up, the sunlight doesn’t actually have to touch your skin. As long as light gets in your eyes, it should help.
- Get out of bed and turn on your lights. Tempting though it may be to wallow in the dark all day, it certainly won’t do you any favors. If you are finding it difficult to not climb into bed, putting a chair or stacks of books on top of it can be a wonderful deterrent. If you do end up laying in bed for hours, at least try and keep your lights on.
- Keep your space relatively tidy. Depression contributes to messiness, which contributes to depression, which contributes to more mess and so on and so forth in cycle of tears and piled up laundry. Remind yourself that you do not have to clean your entire room or house in a single day. Start by just cleaning off your desk, or picking just the clothes up off of the floor. Baby steps are good steps. Baby steps are sustainable.
- Ask for others to help you. Friends, family members and roommates can all be enlisted to help you help yourself. Ask them if they would be willing to remind you to do things that you are letting slide. From the dishes to doctors appointments, you are more likely to do something if someone else also knows that you have to do it. It can also just be helpful to simply let someone know that you are struggling. That said, letting someone know that you are struggling is very different from asking someone to carry your struggles for you. It is unfair to ask someone who is not a therapist for therapy-like help.
- Do the things that used to make you happy, even if you don’t enjoy them right now. It sounds like garbage, but going out and doing things that used to excite you can end up being really helpful. You may find out that though your motivation to do these things is nonexistent, you end up enjoying them anyways. Even if that isn’t the case, having something to do prevents you from sinking further into your own misery. This is particularly true if it involves seeing other people. Humans are social creatures and we don’t do well with extended periods of no social contact, whether we believe it or not is irrelevant.
- Keep a healthy sleep schedule. One of the things that messes people up in the winter is that their body’s natural clock gets all out of whack. Try to make a set time of when you generally want to go to sleep, and when you usually want to wake up. To get to sleep earlier than you intended, or without feeling tired, try to establish a sleep routine, or a series of things that you can do to tell yourself that it’s time to go to bed. Avoid bright light, exercise, and technology for an hour before bed, as all of those things can affect your sleep.
- Most importantly, if this is becoming too much for you to handle, or you are having thoughts of of wanting to harm yourself, go to a doctor. Through seasonal affective disorder is remarkably common and can be self diagnosed, there is certainly a possibility that someone can cross the threshold of normalcy. It is important to know where that threshold is. It's normal to have trouble getting out of bed. It isn’t normal to start calling in sick so that you can lie in bed all day. This list is meant as a supplement to dealing with seasonal depression, not a solution to it. If you have thoughts of wanting to die or wishing you were dead, consult a doctor as soon as possible.
Health and WellnessDec 06, 2016
9 Ways To Cope With The Winter Blues
Nine ways to handle a seasonal slump.
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