Summer sunny days have been replaced by autumn weather, the days are getting shorter, it is drizzling, and the street is becoming gray and dull. For some people, the time of “autumn blues” is coming.
Doctors estimate that the condition affects about 10% of people worldwide, and it is four times more common in women than men. Many people feel more alert in the summer than in the winter, but for those with seasonal affective disorder the difference can be dramatic. Most ordinary people do not distinguish between the concepts of “the blues” and depression, but it is important to understand that depression is a serious psychiatric diagnosis that requires help and certain drug treatment, while the “blues” are natural emotions, a state of low mood, melancholy and melancholy.
What is autumn blues
The autumn blues are always a temporary condition, but its symptoms are similar to a depressive disorder.
You may feel tired, less focused at work, sleepy, and have ideas of unworthiness. This condition usually goes away in one to two weeks. If the period of low mood exceeds this time and the symptoms only get worse every day, then perhaps we are talking about seasonal affective disorder. In this case, you should seek help from a psychiatrist to diagnose your condition.
Symptoms and signs of autumn blues
How to recognize autumn depression and what symptoms are associated with it? As we said, the autumn blues are more typical for people who are prone to stress and isolation. But how to recognize the first symptoms of depression in the fall? Let's study in more detail.
Autumn blues symptoms:
- bad mood or frequent changes, melancholy, despondency, tearfulness;
- apathy and reluctance to do anything;
- lack of interest in things that previously brought pleasure;
- reluctance to communicate with loved ones, friends, and make new acquaintances;
- it is difficult to concentrate on work and do it well;
- irritability;
- feeling unwell during the day, lethargy and drowsiness;
- poor sleep, lack of sleep;
- dissatisfaction with oneself and others, decreased self-esteem, excessive criticism of oneself;
- exacerbation of chronic diseases;
- anxiety and excessive worry.
The presence of all these symptoms indicates that you have succumbed to general despondency and are in the grip of the autumn blues.
What causes
Seasonal affective disorder, like many other chronic diseases, is caused by shorter daylight hours in the fall and winter months, changeable weather, increased humidity, decreased air temperature and changes in atmospheric pressure.
It is believed that the following factors may play a role in the development of seasonal affective disorder:
- disruption of the body's circadian rhythm (or biological clock);
- changes in the amount of melatonin produced by the body (melatonin is a hormone that plays a role in the formation of good sleep and mood);
- changes in the amount of serotonin the body produces (serotonin is a brain chemical that affects mood).
Causes of autumn depression
The main reason why seasonal blues and depression begins is the restructuring of the body after a summer vacation in conditions of decreasing daylight hours. In healthy people, it occurs unnoticed within a short time.
However, in some cases the situation may become more complicated due to the following reasons:
- Unfavorable heredity. The risk of developing depression is higher in those people whose older relatives had similar problems.
- Chronic stress and inability to cope with it.
- Incorrect upbringing in childhood, when parents were overly protective or overly controlling of the child.
- Somatic disorders. Physical diseases associated with dysfunction of the nervous and hormonal systems.
The term “autumn depression” is rather commonplace, since such a diagnosis does not exist. Any chronic disease, as a rule, worsens in the autumn-spring period, so autumn depression can be a cause of exacerbation of chronic depression.
The time of year is also an important factor. Autumn is the period when traditionally the time of depression begins. Daylight hours decrease, the body receives less vitamin D, which adversely affects the condition of the body.
What to do about it
Most people with seasonal affective disorder benefit from traditional depression treatments, such as antidepressants and/or psychotherapy. In milder forms of the condition, exercising and spending as much time outdoors as possible may help cope with a bout of seasonal affective disorder. Try not to use psychoactive substances (alcohol, drugs) as this will only worsen your well-being and further disrupt your sleep.
If you or your loved ones exhibit these symptoms, and everything that is happening does not seem to be just a bad mood, then you should immediately talk about it with a specialist psychiatrist or psychotherapist. Remember that the quality of medical care provided always depends on the speed of initiation of treatment.
Antidepressant products to combat autumn depression
Psychologists who help cope with seasonal depression suggest using a way to combat it that is accessible and enjoyable for everyone - delicious food.
This does not mean that you need to start eating stress by eating food in large quantities. Meals should be nutritious and regular.
It is necessary to include in the daily diet suppliers of tryptophan, from which the body produces the joy hormone serotonin:
- bananas,
- dates,
- nuts,
- brightly colored fruits and vegetables
- dark chocolate made from natural cocoa beans or carob (even better),
- algae: wakame, spirulina, chlorella.
Daily drinking of grapefruit, orange, carrot, and beet juice helps improve your mood. It is useful to drink soothing teas and infusions of St. John's wort, linden, hawthorn, thyme, rose hips, while coffee irritates the nervous system and should be avoided. You can take herbal adaptogens: infusion of lemongrass, ginseng, eleutherococcus.
Eating tasty and balanced plant-based foods will help you get rid of negative thoughts and put your mind in a positive frame of mind.
Don't skimp on extra classes
There is a common phenomenon: when our stress increases (in the fall, for example, we have to keep ourselves warm all the time), we imperceptibly begin to “dump the ballast.” We refuse routines: warm socks, clothes, things that are pleasant to us take time. We stop going to sports and start meeting with friends less often. We think: “Now everything will get better, and I will again include these wonderful things in my normal life.”
Here we make a mistake: these are the very things that provide resources and allow us to recover, fill life with meaning, make it the way we want. When we give up on them, we subtly give priority to something else—for example, we start working more or compulsively surfing the Internet—even though we think we’re reducing the load.
Rebuilding requires creativity and a fresh perspective—and the process itself may not be a priority for us. But don’t consider these supportive routines unimportant, especially during times like these. There is no need to give up what helps us maintain balance, thinking that we do not have the resource.
Autumn blues: causes and ways to overcome
The first cool evenings, rustling yellow leaves underfoot, shorter and shorter daylight hours and... worsening mood are signs of the coming autumn. Why do we get depressed so often in the fall? After all, just recently we enjoyed life and were full of energy. It would seem that during the summer period the body should have rested, filled with energy and vitamins, but with the onset of autumn, all positive “reserves” seem to be carried away by the chilly autumn wind. Let's find out how the autumn blues appear, and how in such simple ways as sleep and rest you can prevent it.
Reasons for worsening mood in autumn
Scientists believe that the most likely cause of the blues is a reduction in daylight hours. Lack of sunlight has a detrimental effect on well-being: mood worsens, appetite decreases/increases, and sleep is disturbed. This is due to insufficient production of vitamin D and serotonin.
It is also often believed that with the onset of cold weather, we become more sleepy and feel tired due to physiological mechanisms similar to the work of the body of animals hibernating. But a person does not have the opportunity to pause life for a week or two, so he has to cope with sadness and malaise in other ways.
Of course, among the causes of the autumn blues, the individual characteristics of each person are important. For example, someone may be sad because of unjustified and inflated expectations or plans that could not be realized in the summer. Some people believe that autumn is not just the beginning of the school year, but also the start for new achievements and a new life in general, but there is no desire or resource for these changes. To summarize, we will write that psychological factors are also extremely important in the appearance of a bad mood in the fall.
Ways to combat the autumn blues
Based on the findings of scientists about the causes of deterioration in mood and well-being, we have identified the main recommendations for preventing and overcoming the blues.
- Normalize your sleep and wakefulness patterns. You shouldn’t rush into the maelstrom of new plans in the fall. Allow your body to rebuild and recover. Do not overload yourself with work, but choose a measured pace, proper sleep and rest. Remember the simplest basic rules of sleep hygiene, which can be found in our article “How to improve sleep: melatonin and its functions” in the section How to improve sleep without melatonin.
- Take advantage of the warm days and be outside more often during the day. Make it a rule to walk every day during daylight hours. This is important to do not only in the fall, but all year round. The body needs vitamin D, which is produced when exposed to light. Just imagine: in the summer you regularly walked, spent your free time outside, on the beach, etc. And with the onset of the first cold weather, you locked yourself at home, wrapped in a blanket. No light, no fresh air. Of course, autumn weather is often not conducive to pleasant walks, but you can find something good in any situation. Rubber boots, a beautiful umbrella or a bright raincoat will help you with this!
- Make yourself happy. Autumn is not the best time for strict diets, exhausting workouts or dramatic changes in lifestyle. Don't be afraid to satisfy your impulses and weaknesses. Delicious food, pleasant meetings with friends, light physical activity, watching a movie - all this helps maintain your mood, because it stimulates the production of endorphins. Find your own “pleasures” and pamper yourself.
- Create a pleasant atmosphere at home. Cleaning, repairing or rearranging is a symbol of pleasant change for some people, but for others it is an unwanted hassle. If you don't like housework, then limit yourself to transforming the interior of the bedroom. Just a few details will help create comfort and warmth. Scented candles, decorative elements, a new lamp or curtains - a stylish interior is in the details. Please yourself, for example, with a soft and incredibly pleasant to the touch Rabbit Sheepskin or Rabbit Rund rug from the Sleep Territories collection; for warmth and comfort, complement the interior with blankets, a wide selection of which is also presented in our stores and on the website.
- Eat right. It's time to enjoy the autumn harvest. Fruits and vegetables, filled with vitamins and microelements, improve immunity and lift your mood. Take care of your diet, expand it to include all the necessary products. In addition, not only walking, but also proper nutrition is suitable for replenishing vitamin D reserves. For example, introduce red fish, mushrooms, dairy products, and eggs into your diet.
- Think positively. Trite, but so effective! Drive sad and pessimistic thoughts away, replacing them with positive attitudes. Imagine pleasant pictures, dream and believe in the best, because life is cyclical, everything passes and changes.
A bad mood is not a reason to give up the joys of life and fall into despair. The body adapts to any conditions, so our task is to give it a little time for this and support it. Be attentive to the signals of your body, listen to its needs so that possible blues do not overtake you unexpectedly. The simple recommendations given in our article will help you avoid autumn melancholy or overcome it in a timely manner.
