How Google Helps Me To Treat My Winter Blues
If you were born and raise in a country near the equator like me, chances are, you might experience various degrees of winter blues when you live in four seasons countries.
Winter blues is a very common mood swing when the season is transitioning from autumn to winter. There are no specific causes known to this mood swing, but some factors may include:
Your biological clock (circadian rhythm)
Reduced sunlight in autumn and winter may cause winter blues. This decrease in sunlight may disrupt your body’s internal clock and lead to feelings of depression.
Serotonin levels
Serotonin is a brain chemical that affects mood. Reduced sunlight can cause a drop in serotonin, which might trigger depression.
Melatonin levels
Melatonin is the hormone that plays a role in sleep patterns and mood. The change in season can disrupt the balance of the body’s level of melatonin.
Growing up as someone who receives constant sunlight, I have never experienced mood swings like what I experience when winter comes in Australia.
Some of what I experiences are:
1. In the beginning, I feel mellow.
2. And then I start to lose appetite.
3. I don’t want to go outside because it’s too cold, but I don’t want to do anything inside.
4. I feel unhappy most of the time.
5. I have trouble sleeping, and when I wake up, I don’t want to get out of bed.
So, like most people do when they want to know what happened to them and how to treat it, I went to the Internet, Googled, and read many articles about winter blues. I can say I have treated myself. I still have winter blues on certain weeks during the winter season, but the frequency is reducing from time to time.
Boost my mood with food
I’m not talking about doing a diet. I’m talking about boosting your mood with a good combination of nutrition. I try to consume protein in my breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu to ensure that I have an excellent immune system and enhancing my mood. Of course, I eat sugar and carbs because my body needs them. But I try to eat them reasonably, so I don’t experience sugar and carbs craving later in the day.
During the winter months, we don’t get enough vitamin D from the sunlight. So I include food high in vitamin D on my menu. Fatty fish, fish oil, and vitamin D fortified foods like milk, orange juice, breakfast cereal, yogurt can help balance our mood. According to one meta-analysis, researchers found that people with depression have low vitamin D levels, while people with low vitamin D are at a greater risk of depression. So, make sure you have enough vitamin D.
I try to keep up with my sleep routine.
Sleep is a huge component of mood. I try to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. Without adequate regular sleep, psychologist Kelly Donahue, Ph.D., says our circadian rhythm can disrupt our cortisol rhythms and impact hormone production.
Exercise regularly
I do a 1-hour mix of yoga and YouTube exercise at home every morning. And if I don’t have time because I have to go to work, I try to walk at least 1 km that day as my exercise. Physical activity can boost your mood, decrease the symptoms of depression, and reduce stress. Walking to the groceries shop is an exercise too! It doesn’t have to be expensive with lots of effort type of exercise.
Seek out the sun
I never really thought about the impact of sunshine on my mental health until I go out and seek out the sun during the winter months. Being in the sunlight immediately changes my mood; I feel warm and happy. Sunlight helps balance serotonin activity, increases melatonin production, balances our circadian rhythm, and increases vitamin D levels, leading to an improved emotional state.
If you cannot get outdoors, move a chair, your workstation, or kitchen table next to a window that gets sunlight. Aim to sit in this location for at least one to two hours a day. You can break the sitting time into shorter chunks throughout the daytime hours.
I talk to my support system
I’m so grateful for the technology. It makes me able to talk to my family and friends easily. Loneliness and isolation tend to make the effects of the winter blues worse.
It’s essential to pay attention and understand your health, both physical and mental. Some people might not even experience winter blues, and that is great. Good on them! But for people like me who always experience it, it’s essential to take care of yourself no matter how easy the treatment is.
The extreme level of winter blues is Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) with a severe mental state level. Again, based on my Google research, if you already try the winter blues treatment and still having the same mood swing and depression, you can try the following:
Seek professional help
If you try the winter blues treatment and it doesn’t provide enough relief from the winter blues, please consider seeking professional help. Psychotherapy or “talk therapy” is highly recommended to treat depressive disorders and would likely benefit any individual suffering from SAD. The National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) says cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has proven effective in treating SAD.
Light therapy treatment
Light therapy treatment is common for people diagnosed with SAD. The NIMH recommends sitting in front of a light box first thing in the morning for 20 to 60 minutes. Light boxes usually provide 10,000 lux (lux is a light intensity measurement). It would help if you did this from early autumn until spring.
Taking medication
Talk to your doctor or a mental health professional if you consider taking medication for mood disorders if you are experiencing more than the winter blues.
The treatment steps shared in this article are a compilation of treatment steps that I found when I googled on the Internet and applied to myself. None of the treatment steps are my ideas.
