Winter can impact mental health in subtle ways. Understand what’s normal—and when to seek support to become more aware but not alarmed.
Whether common or confusing, the signs are present: persistent sadness, irritability (to the point of being overly sensitive), and the loss of interest in previously enjoyable hobbies or activities, even when you try to force it. This might also grab your attention if you sleep more, eat more (especially carbs and sugary foods), notice that you are gaining weight, and have more than usual challenges concentrating or focusing. Fatigue, withdrawal from your social scene, and a persistent sluggishness may also be cues to seek a mental health professional. Winter does not mean that any of these signs are necessarily normal. It does mean that you might have seasonal depression (SAD).
How do you know that what you’re experiencing is not typical? Examine your energy and sleep. If you have low energy, increased fatigue, feel sluggish, have excessive sleepiness, and experience difficulty waking, these are key symptoms that, while they shouldn’t be ignored, do not need to cause alarm.
Lean into your mental health and find out if what you feel is different from everyday stress or fatigue. Everyday stress and fatigue are triggered by situations and are temporary and milder. SAD has a pattern of onset in fall/winter that typically lifts in spring/summer. It is also linked to less sunlight. Everyday stress and fatigue may develop during a certain situation and decrease once the stressful situation is over. While both involve fatigue, everyday stress, even when significant, doesn’t usually prevent you from enjoying life or functioning at work, school, or in relationships, unlike SAD. It is the degree of depression that determines whether the everyday experience is “situational, short-term, and manageable.”
RELATED: Feeling SAD? 5 Ways to Combat Seasonal Depression
Although SAD is more than a case of the “winter blues” gone amok, becoming more aware enables you to be more effective in coping with it.
Practical strategies to cope with SAD include:
These suggested lifestyle changes are important but not guarantees. No single coping strategy helps everybody. However, there’s no cause for alarm if you do have SAD. It can be treated with medication or therapy.
RELATED: Is It Just the Winter Blues? Recognizing Seasonal Depression in Black Women
You may want to say “I’m just over it,” especially if your symptoms turn out to be SAD. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. You don’t get to choose. SAD, as uncomfortable as it can be, doesn’t end because you may be fed up, tired of it, no longer want to be bothered by its symptoms. It’s understandable if you feel you are ready to move on. SAD can make January and February feel long and heavy. Above all, you may wish SAD was a past interest that you no longer want to deal with and are ready to ignore: SAD is the boo you want to break up with because you feel they are making your daily life difficult and draining you of energy.
Likewise, you may not want to think about SAD and want to be done with it; you may wish that not caring anymore is enough to make it go away. This is not a condition you can simply ignore, although such feelings are a natural response to SAD’s symptoms. The best you can do is: use coping strategies, and/or engage in treatment like pharmaceutical drugs, consult with a mental health professional for cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)/counseling, or even try light therapy.
If this phrase, “I’m just over it,” comes from someone you care about when you ask them how they’re doing with SAD, you can try to probe a little deeper to find out what is behind this response. You can do this as an earnest expression of compassion if you sense they are saying they are “over it” to put up a wall that reality can reveal as false and fragile.
If so, ask them how they would like you to best support them as they deal with SAD. Show that you are willing to listen, not give advice, or judge them by suggesting it is all in their head.
Additionally, telling someone you care about to “just push through” minimizes the impact SAD has, going beyond their lack of control over physical symptoms like fatigue, sleep issues, and changes in appetite, as well as psychological changes like irritability. Examine what your level of commitment is to this individual. If this is a person you are close to, observe, and be ready and willing to listen sincerely to their experience with SAD, help them deal with some of its symptoms as they come up, or spend some time together when SAD is not the focus.
Supporting someone with SAD has its own challenges. Being there shows you care. You can volunteer to do some coping strategies together, like socializing when it is hard for them to get out, and they’d rather isolate than engage, no matter how noble your intentions are. Going to the park for an outdoor stroll, then sharing a low-carb, sugar-free treat, are some other examples.
SAD requires creativity and patience. It can be a challenging personal experience. Find what works best for your symptoms or your loved one’s, and everybody benefits.
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