9 Guaranteed Ways to Fight the Winter Blues (SAD)

Posted on December 30, 2017

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD), also referred to as winter blues or winter depression, impacts people which experience normal mental health for the rest of the year but get depressed during the cold months and even through the fall.

Nearly 3 percent of Americans are afflicted by SAD.  But a lot of people don’t even realize they’re depressed and attribute altered behavior to the winter weather.

SAD symptoms are often manifested during the time of the year with less sunlight throughout the day as in the colder days of fall and winter months. The symptoms can begin as mild or average but may become severe.

You may go through the winter blues during other parts of the year if you work extended hours indoors in an office building with few windows for sunlight to shine through. Some even experience mood alterations during prolonged stretches of cloudy climate.

You may be experiencing SAD in the event that you frequently feel fatigued, crave foods abundant with carbohydrates, lack enthusiasm in doing normal activities, have a problem diffusing tension and coping with stress, find it hard to concentrate, feel socially withdrawn, and encounter weight gain.

Don’t allow SAD to get you down}, especially through the holidays. Listed below are easy steps to fight seasonal affective disorder:

• Avoid grains and sugars – Grains and sugars create a risk of insulin resistance, which is connected with depression.
• Work out – Sweat it out to create endorphins, that promotes a feeling of well-being by minimizing pain and stress.
• Laugh – Like working out, laughter releases endorphins to provide you with painkilling effects similar to morphine.
• Meditate and pray.
• Optimize your degrees of omega-3 good fats – These EFAs might help your emotional well-being. Animal options like top quality fish and krill oil.
• Pass on drinks – Avoid alcoholic beverages because drinking is only going to depress you more.
• Sleep early – We are designed to fall asleep when at sunset. In the wintertime, however, you might want to go to bed at an earlier time to conserve this biological pattern and prevent disrupting fragile hormonal cycles within your body.
• Socialize – No man can be an island. Go find good people that will help cheer you up.
• Try light treatment – There are small lightweight lamps known as light boxes that make artificial full-spectrum light which mimic outdoor light to improve your mood.