Seasonal Depression: How to Fight It

As someone who craves the sun on my face, I find that winter is extremely hard on me. Living in upstate New York comes with harsh winters, months on end of almost no sun. I had recently taken a trip down to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with my boyfriend. We had beautiful weather the whole week. I had the sun on my face, and I realized just how much I needed that. My therapist once told me that as someone with borderline personality disorder (BPD), I can become more heavily effected than the average person by the weather changes.

But as I converse with others about my struggles without the sun, I have found that many people struggle in the winter. The sun can provide us with that happy feeling that we all love. It feels warm and up-lifting. But the sun actually does provide important chemicals that help us feel happy.

According to an article discussing the importance of sunlight on our mental and even physical health from a site called DCR Report, extensive research findings have made it clear... The sun really does help us feel better!

Ways the sun helps improve mental health:

• helps us produce vitamin D

  • When someone is lacking vitamin D, they often will experience issues with lacking energy, and even bone weakness. Vitamin D helps us to absorb calcium, which supports both our bones and teeth. Most will experience low energy when lacking vitamin D, but bone weakness can happen.

• Improvement of Sleep Patterns

  • I know this one sounds a bit strange, especially because I just said how we get energy from the sun. However, having that exposure to sunlight throughout our day helps to regulate our body's internal clock, a rhythm that manages feelings of alertness and drowsiness. So, how does this help sleep? Basically, the sun being up during the day and physically feeling and seeing the sun, then having it go down at night helps us to fall asleep and wake up on a natural schedule.

  • One of the worst parts of winter, besides the lack of sun, is the fact that it gets dark outside so early. I miss the sun going down at 9 pm, when it feels natural to get that tired feeling, rather than the 6 pm that it mostly starts to get dark during winter.

• The sun helps to support a healthy immune system.

  • Along with vitamin D being important for our bones and for our energy level, it also helps us to maintain a strong immune system. Think of how we always get colds in the winter, and barely are sick in the summer... kinda makes more sense to me now why this might be.

• Can reduce the risk of chronic diseases.

  • I know this one sounds far fetched, but research has shown that regular amounts of time spent in the sunlight can help reduce the risk of developing heart disease, lower blood pressure, and even lower the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The release of nitric oxide in the skin, which is aided by the sun, helps to relax blood vessels.

This all sounds amazing, but the sun can also help us with our mental health, as we can already probably infer from that good time summer feeling.

Ways the sun helps to improve our mental health:

• Boosting our Mood and Our Energy

  • Not only does the sun help provide us with vitamin D, but it also helps to produce serotonin. Serotonin is the hormone that is produced to help us feel happy. When someone is depressed and put on an antidepressant, the antidepressant helps to increase serotonin. Higher levels of serotonin help us feel motivated, energetic, and overall happier.

• Can be used to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

  • This is that seasonal depression I am talking about. Being outdoors and exposed directly to the sun helps to treat this and help us to improve our overall mood.

Alright, so now that we have discussed the wonderful affects of the sun, what do we do on those months when the sun hardly ever makes an appearance?

Thankfully, there are options for us to get through those hard months:

• As always, seek counseling.

  • I am a huge advocate for therapy. I have had good and bad experience with therapy. But once I found the right therapist, I was able to improve my happiness.

    • This can help because it is important to get with a professional to help evaluate whether this is just a seasonal depression, or if there is something more going on. Understanding the why of how you're feeling is the first step to starting to feel better. It is also helpful to have someone who is there to talk you through those feelings and dive deep into ways to start to feel better.

• The use of antidepressants.

  • I used to be so embarrassed to have to be on antidepressants. However, I have learned that more people are on them than we realize. A lot of times our brains are just experiencing a chemical imbalance that is causing depression.

  • Talking honestly with your doctor about the possibility of starting an antidepressant is a big step to help yourself to feel better. I know we all dont want to take medications, but if you can feel better, why not? I have learned that it is okay to need help, so take advantage of our world today, which is battling that stigma that comes with mental health.

• Sun Lamps

  • This is something that I feel is a huge one. I have recently ordered one and I am eager to try it. I have heard many many good things about sun lamps. These lamps create a synthetic sun experience and help us to feel like we are basking in the sun on a summer day. There are many different options out there. This is an easy way to feel the sun on your skin without ever having to step outside and improve your mood when we are lacking the sun.

These are only a few options to help us fight the winter blues. A little research can pull up much more. I personally like those three options, and feel as though they are the main and most obtainable options available.

At the end of the day, winter can be tough, especially for those of us that feel the lack of sun so deeply. In our world today, self care is so important. So, sometimes the self care can be as little as just asking for help, or finding alternate ways to get some rays on our face, like a sun lamp.

As always, I hope at least one person was able to get something out of this blog post. I know the world can be such an uncertain place. I hope that we all can reap the benefits of the sun very soon. In the mean time, take care of yourselves. Put yourselves first, because at the end of the day, you are the most important person in your life.

Thank you for reading!

Until next time,

Jacasa