Medical help, including drug therapy, is available for sufferers from SAD but it’s worth trying something to beat the blues yourself before seeking professional help and opting for medical interventions that can be stressful in themselves. Winter is the time when we most need to shape up, with exercise, healthy eating and active engagement with the world.

Seasonal Mood Slumps: What Is ‘Normal’?

Normal is a relative term. We all react differently to change – including seasonal change – and there are often good reasons for that. For some people, the onset of winter makes little difference to their lives. Cold weather and grey skies are an inconvenience that can be dealt with by putting on a coat and scarf and getting on with things, in the knowledge that the sun will return.

The reality is that for some people winter can bring real hardship, in one of many forms. For arthritis sufferers, it’s the season for joints to seize up. For outdoors workers, routine tasks become more difficult. The person who habitually unwinds in the garden may have little to do except prune and clear some beds. People in low incomes have to find that extra money for heating. Parents may be locked in with children whose activities are restricted and who moan or play up accordingly. For those whose work has a seasonal cycle winter can be a time of penny-pinching and financial anxiety.

Winter is a season of loss in a very real sense and feeling down about it is a perfectly normal reaction. The key issue is how people deal with that. For some people, the temptation is to batten down the hatches and withdraw. We may restrict social activity, choosing instead to vegetate in front of the TV – quite possibly upping our caffeine and alcohol intake with it. Comfort foods, especially carbohydrate-rich meals, are doubly attractive on cold nights. So is sleeping too much. Knowing that when the alarm goes one has to crawl from the warm duvet and face a cold commute to work is hardly conducive to boundless enthusiasm.

Add it all up and winter is a time for lifestyle lapses that can exacerbate any tendency towards SAD and can even produce some of the symptoms. Social withdrawal, inactivity, piling on the pounds and poor sleep will leave almost anyone feeling bogged down and low on energy. Before booking a doctor’s appointment, making lifestyle changes can sometimes be enough to stave off dampened mood.

The media tend to exhort us to shape up for summer. We launch into healthy living regimes in spring in order to look good in revealing summer fashions. Perhaps we’ve got it the wrong way round. A good diet, rich in vitamin D and perhaps with other vitamin supplements added, is even more important in winter. Almost all of us in colder climates will be somewhat less active in winter, so logically this is the time to watch our calorie and starch intake and to make sure we get vitality-boosting exercise. Instead, it’s only too tempting to make cold temperatures and long nights an excuse to give up and let ourselves go.

When To Seek Help For SAD

SAD is a potentially serious psychiatric disorder that is not to be taken lightly. If making lifestyle changes makes no difference – or if you just don’t have the oomph to even try to alleviate diminished winter mood – then your doctor should be your first port of call. Sufferers report that light boxes (to compensate for lack of exposure to sunlight and regulate circadian rhythms) and antidepressants can make a huge difference, as can supportive therapies.

Even if you are diagnosed with SAD, lifestyle remains of central importance and can be crucial in managing the condition. Shaping up in winter, with healthy living and mood-enhancing exercise, will help all of us, whether diagnosed with SAD or not, to keep our spirits up until the sunshine returns.