Stop Letting the Winter Depression Freeze Your Happiness
HealthyPlace Mental Health Newsletter
Here's what's happening on the HealthyPlace site this week:
- Stop Letting the Winter Depression Freeze Your Happiness
- Ways to Relieve Winter Depression
- Focus on Your Happiness – Not the Weather
- Most Popular HealthyPlace Articles Shared by Facebook Fans
- From the HealthyPlace Mental Health Blogs
- Stand Up for Mental Health
- Latest Mental Health News
Stop Letting the Winter Depression Freeze Your Happiness
Winter can be a very difficult season for those with and without a mental illness. Many people are diagnosed with seasonal affective disorder (SAD) aka winter depression. Even though some tend to call it "just the winter blues", it is a serious diagnosis that if left without care, could lead to self-destructive behaviors.
Ways to Relieve Winter Depression
It can be very stressful pushing yourself out of the funk winter depression has got you stuck in. SAD light therapy is an effective treatment for seasonal affective disorder. In addition, some people may need antidepressant medication to help with their winter depression.
Additionally, mindfulness may help. When you feel trapped, step back and realize you have the power to control your behaviors. Convincing yourself that you own this power can be a struggle for those who lack confidence and positivity. However, embracing and building self-motivation and self-worth can help when trying to recognize that power.
Focus on Your Happiness – Not the Weather
In addition to seeking professional treatment, take the time to discover ways to pump up your energy and increase your confidence. Try some of the following when winter depression starts kicking in:
- Check out a new yoga, Zumba, barre fitness or kickboxing class to help your body and mind.
- Try new recipes that will boost your energy and cleanse your system (try adding ginger, mint or herbal tea to your diet).
- If you have a pet, spend more time playing and interacting with them – the energy animals give off can help depression.
Getting up, moving around, going outside, and exercise are all things that can help relieve your winter depression.
Articles Related to Winter and Finding Happiness
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) Symptoms – Who's At Risk
- Tips to Beat Depression This Winter
- How to Beat the “Winter Blues”
Your Thoughts
Today's Question: What’s been most helpful in fighting your winter depression? We invite you to participate by commenting and sharing your feelings, experiences and knowledge on the HealthyPlace Facebook page and on the HealthyPlace Google+ page.
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Share our Stories
At the top and bottom of all our stories, you'll find social share buttons for Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest and other social sites. If you find a particular story, video, psychological test or other HealthyPlace feature helpful, there's a good chance others in need will too. Please share.
We also get many inquiries about our linking policy. If you have a website or blog, you can link to any page on the HealthyPlace website without asking us beforehand.
Most Popular HealthyPlace Articles Shared by Facebook Fans
Here are the top 3 mental health articles HealthyPlace Facebook fans are recommending you read:
- If You Know Someone Who's Depressed
- How to Help Your Child Stop Bullying
- The Connection Between Father and Son
If you're not already, I hope you'll join us/like us on Facebook too. There are a lot of wonderful, supportive people there.
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From the HealthyPlace Mental Health Blogs
On all our blogs, your comments and observations are welcomed.
- Helping the Troubled Teenager (Mental Health Treatment Circle Blog)
- Depression and Resilience and Using Metaphor to Describe the Pain of Depression (Coping with Depression Blog)
- I’m Not Afraid; I Have Anxiety and When Anxiety Strikes Without a Cause (Anxiety-Schmanxiety Blog)
- Healthy Self-Esteem When You Have Bipolar (Breaking Bipolar Blog)
- Coming to Terms with Borderline Personality Disorder (More Than Borderline Blog)
- 3 Ideas to Help Mentally Ill Children from a Mom and Good Self-Care is Vital to Mental Health Recovery (Recovering From Mental Illness Blog)
- How Do You Define PTSD? (Trauma! A PTSD Blog)
- Communicating Effectively to Improve Your Self-Esteem and Help Your Child Develop Strong Self-Esteem (Building Self-Esteem Blog)
- The Stigma of Admitting I Am Affected By Mental Illness (Surviving Mental Health Stigma Blog)
- PTSD Rates in Veterans High, But Not in All Groups (Understanding Combat PTSD)
- Vyvanse, A New Binge Eating Disorder Medication (Binge Eating Recovery Blog)
- The Effects of Verbal Abuse and How They Hurt Me (Verbal Abuse and Relationships Blog)
- Self-Harm Versus Sickness: Your Health is Important (Speaking Out About Self-Injury Blog)
- Is Your Depression Caused By Your Diet? (Your Mental Health Blog)
- How to Create An Emergency Anxiety Toolkit (Treating Anxiety Blog)
- Bipolar Depression in My Teen (Life with Bob)
- Using Safe Objects For Dissociation (Dissociative Living Blog)
- Recovering From Your Eating Disorder When You Want to Quit (Surviving ED Blog)
- Did My Teenage Anorexia Define Me? (Getting Through Tough Times Blog)
- Dealing with Depression While Being Genderqueer (The Life: LGBT Mental Health Blog)
- 7 Signs of Sex Addiction and Enabling Versus Helping an Addicted Loved One (Debunking Addiction Blog)
- Schizoaffective Disorder and Weight Gain and Homeless With Schizophrenia (Creative Schizophrenia Blog)
Feel free to share your thoughts and comments at the bottom of any blog post. And visit the mental health blogs homepage for the latest posts.
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Stand Up for Mental Health
Thousands Have Joined the Stand Up for Mental Health Campaign
But we still need you. Let others know there's no shame in having depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, trichotillomania, OCD, ADHD, schizophrenia or any other mental illness.
Join the Stand Up for Mental Health campaign. Put a button on your website or blog (buttons for family members, parents, mental health professionals and organizations too). We also have covers for Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
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Latest Mental Health News
These stories and more are featured on our mental health news page:
- Can Attention Deficit Drugs 'Normalize' a Child's Brain?
- Smartphones Don't Make Us Dumb
- The Power Of Love: How Relationships Benefit Body And Mind
- Stress Caused By Discrimination Linked To Mental Health Issues Among Latino Teens
- Elementary Teachers' Depression Symptoms Related To Students' Learning
- Caring Youth-Parent Relations Can Be Vital To Preventing Adolescent Suicide Attempts
- Study: Identifying Mentally Ill 'Frequent Fliers' First Step To Reducing Police Contact
That's it for now. If you know of anyone who can benefit from this newsletter or the HealthyPlace.com site, I hope you'll pass this onto them. You can also share the newsletter on any social network (like facebook, stumbleupon, or digg) you belong to by clicking the links below. For updates throughout the week:
APA Reference
Aline, J.
(2015, February 16). Stop Letting the Winter Depression Freeze Your Happiness, HealthyPlace. Retrieved
on 2024, November 23 from https://www.healthyplace.com/other-info/mental-health-newsletter/stop-letting-the-winter-depression-freeze-your-happiness
