How to Fight Seasonal Depression
As someone who grew up in Alabama and Puerto Rico, and who experienced lasting, difficult winters for the first time in college, I can say that I experience seasonal depression every year. Around late October, I start to feel drowsier, less active and more fatigued. I don’t have the motivation to go out as much or start working, and I have a hard time leaving my bed in the morning.
Seasonal Depression or Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a very common disorder that affects people around the same time of year consistently. It is brought on by the reduction in exposure to sunlight. It usually occurs in places where there is less sunlight at certain times of the year.
Because seasonal depression makes people feel out of energy, doing things that boost energy and give you endorphins are vital to feeling better during the winter months. Trying to exercise several times a week, especially in the morning, is something that can drastically help to reduce the negative effects that seasonal depression can bring.
Try to create a routine and stick to it. During winter months, I find it so easy to brush off tasks and waste my days. By creating a routine for myself, whether that be exercising in the morning then working until class or vice versa, I find that if I portion out my time the day before, I am much more productive and feel much better at the end of the day. On days where I find myself having done nothing all day, I don’t feel good, but when I work hard during the day and can relax at night, I can sleep better and even feel more satisfied and happy with myself.
To help stay on a normal schedule, I invested in a dawn simulator. Throughout winter, the days get shorter, so I tend to want to sleep in more. I struggle to get myself out of bed in the morning
if it’s seemingly dark out, so with a dawn simulator, it helps wake me up with natural light, as if it was the middle of summer instead of the dead of winter.
There are a lot of small things that can be done in order to minimize the effects of seasonal depression, and trying to do as many as you can is difficult at first, but as time goes by, the benefits are worth far more than the difficulty to make these changes a habit.
