In a recent blog post titled, “Seasonal Affective Disorder and how does it affect you?”, writer Brittany Spencer, LCPC, gave an overview of Seasonal Affective Disorder, its signs and symptoms, how to distinguish it from winter blues and when to seek support.

So…let’s take one more step and get ahead TO LEARN MORE ABOUT seasonal depressive symptoms

Ahh, the fall time. For many people, this is the season they spend the rest of the year waiting for. The sun begins to set earlier, leading to long, chilly nights around the bonfire. They revel in the marvel of the leaves changing colors, and their souls sing as soon as they can break out their favorite wool cardigan. There’s pumpkin patches to romp through, apples to be picked, and corn mazes to explore. Wandering through the aisles of any big box store, it is impossible to avoid the plethora of fall-themed decorations celebrating the beginning of the season as a time of joy and excitement.

Other people, however view the changing of the seasons with something akin to trepidation. For some, the cold air and long nights bring about a yearly dip in mood, often colloquially referred to as the “winter blues”. While not a clinical diagnosis, “winter blues” is used to describe increased feelings of sadness and decreased feelings of motivation during the colder months. These symptoms can make you feel “not quite like yourself”, but typically do not interfere with your ability to complete daily life functions. Others experience a more significant and debilitating form of seasonal sadness called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). The DSM-5 defines this as a form of Major Depressive Disorder that recurs during a specific time of year. It most typically appears in winter months, but can occur in summer. Onset of symptoms often begins in the fall, with symptoms reaching peak intensity during the winter months and resolving during the spring.

Per the National Institute of Mental Health, symptoms of major depression may include:

Feeling depressed most of the day, nearly every day

Losing interest in activities you once enjoyed

Experiencing changes in appetite or weight

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Having problems with sleep 
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Feeling sluggish or agitated 
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Having low energy 
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Feeling hopeless or worthless 
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Having difficulty concentrating 
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Having frequent thoughts of death or suicide

For winter-pattern SAD, additional specific symptoms may include:

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Oversleeping (hypersomnia) 
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Overeating, particularly with a craving for carbohydrates

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Weight gain 
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Social withdrawal (feeling like “hibernating”)

If you have experienced a fall-time dip in mood, be it the winter blues or SAD, you are likely aware that when a decrease in motivation and loss of interest in typically pleasurable activities takes hold, it can be much more difficult to reengage with the things that make you happy or bring you meaning.

“Getting ahead” of seasonal depressive symptoms does not necessarily mean preventing them.

Instead, getting ahead means building and practicing coping skills in the present so that future you has them at your disposal. Think about it; picking up a new habit or sticking to a new routine can be hard for many people even on a good day! Making these things a part of your lifestyle creates a safety net for yourself early on and gives you something to fall back on when symptoms become more difficult to manage. Building and using coping skills now may not completely cure or prevent seasonal symptoms, but they can soften the blow and make this difficult time of the year more tolerable.

With that being said, here are a few ways to “get ahead” of seasonal depressive symptoms:

1. Look Back at Previous Years for Patterns

While seasonal depression has many different symptoms, not everyone will experience every symptom. The list of presenting symptoms of seasonal depression will vary from person to person. If you have experienced seasonal depression in the past, think back to previous years and consider what symptoms typically crop up for you first, and when.

As the sun sets early, do you find yourself fatigued than usual?
Maybe once the weather turns brisk, you find yourself saying “no” to plans you would have typically been eager to attend.
Maybe you find yourself craving carbs and sweets more than you typically do.
Do you notice a dip in your self-esteem, or do you find yourself more irritable?

If you can identify symptoms that show up early or consistently, you can keep an eye on them as the weather moves into the colder months. When these symptoms begin to appear, it can serve as a warning signal in your brain to begin taking more intentional, purposeful care of yourself and your needs. If you are struggling to reflect back to previous years, allow this year to be the first where you mindfully notice symptoms as they appear. Keep a journal that documents what you are thinking and feeling and how symptoms are showing up for you. Not only will this give you the space in the present to check-in with yourself and evaluate your own emotional state, but it will also give yourself something physical to look back on in the future.

2. Keep Busy, and Stay Connected to Social Supports

When you are feeling a loss of interest in the normal activities that used to bring you pleasure, you may find yourself looking at social invitations and wondering things like

“What’s the point?”
“I’m not going to have fun anyway.”
“Even if I might have a little fun, I’m sad and I don’t want to bring the mood down.”
“My friends won’t want me there if all I’m going to do is mope.”
“They’d be better off without me there.”.

Turning them down may leave you feeling guilty, causing to you retreat further inward. The more you retreat inward, the more intense the feelings of loneliness, worthlessness, and lethargy can become, leading to further desire (even subconsciously) to withdraw from social supports and engagements, preferring instead to “hibernate” at home.

Plan ahead! Begin to work to put things on the calendar that you can look forward to and feel excited about. These do not have to be big, elaborate plans (although they certainly can be!). Rather, these should be things that feel reasonable and meaningful for you; a dinner scheduled with an old friend, tickets to a local concert, or a weekly standing trivia night. The idea is to give yourself commitments that do not feel overwhelming.

If you find that you often struggle to motivate yourself to go to these plans after you’ve committed to them, your friends can be a good source of support for you. Let them know how you’ve been feeling recently, and how they may be able to help you on your difficult days. Are you the type that needs some gentle cajoling when you’re considering cancelling plans? When you are feeling reluctant to leave, would your friends reassurance that they want to see you even if you are sad bring you some comfort? Take time to think about what support you need from them, and do not be afraid to ask the people around you to help lift you up during your time of need.

3. Create Routine

Depression can often leave people in a daze. Hours, days, weeks can seem to pass by in an indistinguishable blur. When you lack a consistent daily routine, it can be hard to differentiate between the days as they pass. This can contribute to the foreboding sense that this feeling will last forever, as it becomes difficult to accurately assess how much time has passed since you began feeling this way.

Create a routine in your own life that helps break up the day and counteract the symptoms of seasonal depression. Building a healthy sleep schedule can help avoid oversleeping, or at least give you a consistent time to peel yourself out of bed and begin your day. Giving yourself something routine to do immediately after getting out of bed (such as brushing your teeth, washing your face, or perhaps even sitting in front of a light box for 30 minutes a day) can help make the act of getting up less daunting. If you know you are someone who struggles with healthy eating habits and getting proper nutrition, consider a multivitamin with your morning coffee. Going on a 30-minute walk outside — yes, even when it’s chilly! — can help improve mood and shake up the monotony of staring at your walls, particularly if you are someone who works from home. If you are in therapy, making and keeping consistent appointments with your therapist is another way to create structure within your week while also giving yourself another place to seek support.

It is important to be flexible with your routine to an extent. If you wake up exhausted, it is okay if you can only manage to go outside for five minutes instead of thirty. If you make a routine where you brush your teeth by 8:00 am every day, and one day at 2:00 pm you realize you’ve forgotten, it is not a failure.

Give yourself a compassionate pat on the back for noticing and being aware of a lapse in your routine, then go do what you need to do. The point of a routine is to make accomplishing the things you want to do more predictable and habitual. The goal is not perfection; the goal is just to brush your teeth.

4. Set Reasonable Goals for Yourself

Your level of productivity has no relation to whether or not you are a good, worthy human being (which, guess what? You are!). However, we live in a capitalist society that often evaluates our worth exclusively on how productive we are. Productivity, then, sometimes becomes tangled into our assessment of our own self-worth; the more productive we are, the “better” we are. This association can lead to a dip in productivity feeling more like a personal, moral failing rather than a product of circumstances. If you are struggling to get things done as the weather turns colder, you may find yourself reflecting on the level of productivity or accomplishment you were able to achieve during the warmer months and wondering what is “wrong with you” that you are unable to get as much done these days. This guilt can lead you to retreat further inward and makes tackling tasks feel even more daunting.

Remember that getting things done requires mental energy, and the mental energy we have available to us at any time ebbs and flows with our mood and life situations. Think of it like the battery in your phone. When the battery is fully charged, your phone can do lots of important, necessary tasks (like sending that business email, or joining a business meeting via video) while still having plenty of battery left over for fun activities (like a long, leisurely scroll through TikTok). When you are feeling depressed, your battery is on low power mode. Each task you want to accomplish asks you to draw from a very limited source of energy. Your reserves are low, and you simply do not have the same capacity for getting things done. Guilt-tripping yourself for being less productive than usual will not result in actually being more productive. Instead, be realistic and accepting about how much you are able to handle right now, and set attainable goals for yourself. Meet yourself where you are.

Feeling better takes time, patience, and consistency. It is understandable and reasonable to be eager for relief from the symptoms of seasonal affective disorder, especially if they are impacting your life to the point that you are struggling to function day-to-day. You may feel disappointed (or even frustrated!) when you finally muster up the strength and willpower to leave the house and go for a walk with friends on a sunny day, and return home only feeling marginally better. While it would be wonderful if any of these suggestions or tools had the ability to “snap” you out of depression, the reality is that addressing these symptoms is a slow, incremental process. If your ideal outcome entering every activity is to feel cured, you will walk away finding them unhelpful and disappointing, and may be less motivated to try again in the future. Instead, be patient with your own healing, and engage with each activity or suggestion with curiosity and the hope that it may make things just a little bit better, even for a moment, and let that brief moment of relief carry you through while you wait for spring.

Meet the Author: Kat Filipov, LGPC

Kat Filipov, LGPC (she/her), is a therapist at Space Between Counseling services. She believes that therapy is not "one size fits all", and draws from a myriad of techniques and theories to help tailor her work to each client's specific needs. She works with individuals and couples located in the state of Maryland as they navigate substance abuse/recovery, anxiety, healthy communication, LGBTQIA+ related issues, life transitions, and more.

Kat is currently accepting clients on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.

Learn more about working with Kat

Getting Ahead of Seasonal Depressive Symptoms