4 Lifestyle Changes to Help You Overcome SAD

Guest Post – 4 Lifestyle Changes to Help You Overcome SAD

Irritability, fatigue, and depression are common feelings during the fall and winter for people who suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). As people with SAD know, you can’t just “snap out of” those negative feelings you’re having. As temperatures begin to cool off, if you find that you’re struggling with SAD, here are some steps you can take to help prevent the disorder from taking over your life:

Stay Social and Plan Regular Time for Fun

SAD can make you feel like sleeping all day, but getting out and hitting the social scene can help you overcome feelings of loneliness and isolation that can creep up on you when you’ve spent too much time on your own. Even a weekly phone call to your sister two states over can be a great way to keep the lines of communication open and curb a lonely existence.

Planning some fun time to focus on you can be a great stress-buster. It could be a group outing with friends or branching out and trying a new hobby. Joining a yoga class offers the benefits of relaxation and socialization in one, plus you’ll benefit from better physical health.

Focus on the Positive

The winter blues make it difficult to see the positives in day-to-day situations, but commit to finding one thing each day to be grateful for. Write it down or tweet it out to your friends and followers, or post your daily gratitude statements to your Facebook wall.

When you’re feeling especially down and out, you can browse through the list of the many things that you’ve found to be grateful for. This practice can be quite effective at shifting your focus from the negative to the positive.

Ramp Up Your Natural Supplements

Natural supplements can help you replace important nutrients that your body is lacking. Fish oil supplements, Vitamin D supplements, tryptophan, and depression-busting supplements such as SAM-e, St. John’s wort, and Arctic root could help you combat SAD.

Before adding any supplements to your daily regimen, you should talk to your doctor to ensure that it’s safe for you to take supplements given any other health conditions and medications that you’re on. Your doctor may suggest a pharmaceutical antidepressant, which can also be effective for treating SAD.

Get Plenty of Exercise

Exercise is a natural mood booster because it triggers the brain to release helpful chemicals that make us feel better and more positive. So, be sure to set aside a little time each day for some physical activity. Don’t overwhelm yourself by thinking you have to be a marathon-level runner or join your local CrossFit gym in order to get the “right kind” of exercise.

Anything, especially when you’re battling depression, is beneficial. Hold yourself to taking a walk around your neighborhood or following along to a short YouTube workout video each day. You might also consider exercises that have a calming quality. For example, the repetitive nature of swimming can help put you into a meditative state as you’re moving through the water. And of course, yoga is a great way to get centered and find rejuvenation.

Boost Light Exposure the Artificial Way

Did you know that you can get the benefits of sunlight without ever actually walking outside? While it’s important to get enough natural sunlight to help alleviate your symptoms, light therapy is another method for increasing light exposure and easing some of the symptoms of SAD.

It’s as simple as spending time under fluorescent lighting or sun lamps specifically designed for light therapy for a short time each day, sometimes as little as 30 minutes is all you need. Doing this in the morning can mimic the sunrise, tricking your body into thinking the days are longer than they truly are. By the time the sun catches up, your routine can already be on track with the natural sunrise.

While SAD is a challenging condition to deal with, being diagnosed with this disorder doesn’t have to mean that you’ve lost control over your life and can’t bounce back. Adopting some simple lifestyle changes can help you beat the winter blues – and if you keep them up all year, you might just be able to ward off SAD next winter altogether.