How Every Season Can Disrupt Your Mental Health
By: Caitlin Marks, Practicum Student
Supervised by: Dr. Cheri Locke, PhD, MA, LPC-S, CST, CCTP\]
Have you ever noticed how every season can disrupt your mental health? Maybe when the cold months start to roll in, you find it harder to sleep, or maybe, when the summer sun is shining its brightest, you feel different from normal. Seasonal depression is something that is commonly misunderstood. Ideas that it only occurs in the winter, or that it must look a certain way have muddied the water. Seasonal depression happens for different people at different times, and looks different for everyone.
What is Seasonal Depression?
Seasonal depression, sometimes called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), can happen at any time of the year. If you are struggling, you might feel sad for no reason, have low energy, or even feel like everything is harder than usual. You might find yourself sleeping too much, not sleeping enough, eating differently, or just feeling “off.” And the hardest part? You might not know why you feel this way, which can make it even scarier. It can be confusing and frustrating to feel so different when the world around you looks the same.
Common Signs of Seasonal Depression:
- Feeling sad or hopeless
- Sleeping too much or too little
- Gaining or losing weight without trying
- Losing interest in activities you usually enjoy
- Having trouble concentrating
- Feeling anxious, restless, or “numb”
If you notice these feelings during certain times of the year, then you are being mindful of how every season can disrupt your mental health. It’s important to listen to your body and mind. Whether this means seeking out counseling, or researching tools that can assist, don’t sit idly by thinking it will pass. You deserve to feel better now.
How Every Season Can Disrupt Your Mental Health: Tools to Help
1. Light Therapy
Sometimes called a “happy light,” this lamp mimics natural sunlight and helps regulate circadian rhythm. Sitting near it for a little bit each day can help regulate your mood. This is especially helpful for those who struggle with low mood during the darker, cold months.
2. Mindfulness and Grounding Exercises
When experiencing something like seasonal depression it can be easy to get stuck when strong feelings arise like sadness. Learning how to be present in both time and space can assist with breaking this cycle. Tools like meditation or box breathing can help bring you back to the present, and move past the intense emotions.
3. Routine Building
Seasons can throw off your schedule. Building a daily routine or working to maintain the routine built previously is a great way to maintain structure and mental health. Taking conscious time to build how each day should generally look builds understanding of personal need and helps us continue to feel closer to ‘normal’.
4. Halting and Challenging Negative Thoughts
It’s easy to get caught in a spiral. Due to this, it is important to recognize and challenge any false thoughts that may come up. It can be easy to sit and think on the same thing, but taking the time to recognize that it is negative, and directly working against it can help bring us back from that thought cycle. Remember, even when you can’t find a way to challenge the negative thought, you can always stop it in its tracks.
Begin Therapy in Katy, TX!
If you need more direction to understand how every season can disrupt your mental health, the therapists at The Counseling Center at Cinco Ranch can help! We provide individual counseling, as well as other mental health services. To begin counseling in Katy, TX follow these three steps:
- Contact our office to set up an appointment or to learn more information about improving your mental health
- Meet with one of our kind and relationship therapists
- Find other ways to improve your mental health with the help of a knowledgeable therapist!
Other Therapy Services We Offer:
Here at The Counseling Center at Cinco Ranch, we offer counseling services for people of all ages in areas including counseling for kids, counseling for young adults, teen counseling, couples counseling, eating disorder treatment, men’s issues, women’s issues, anxiety treatment, depression therapy, trauma counseling, family therapy, and group counseling. Our therapists strive to post blogs regularly. We provide helpful information on a variety of mental health topics. To learn more about our therapists and our counseling services, please reach out to the Counseling Center today!
