HMN 2025: Do you hate ‘Sadderdays’? Dealing with Winter Depression

As the days get darker, temperatures drop, and socialization skills decline, some people may experience winter depression each year. Unlike Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), which is generally more severe and life-disrupting, the experience of winter depression is generally milder but still significantly impactful. During the winter months, individuals may feel more apathetic, tired, lethargic, and oppressed.

Low-level depressive feelings can be difficult to shake, but a few interventions may be helpful while you wait for the warm days of spring to arrive. A few metaphors can help you visualize some of the options to consider.

Fix: Walking on rough terrain

When walking on a forest path, there may be sections where the path is smooth and stable. However, there may also be other segments with more protruding roots, rocks, or muddy potholes. While traversing flat sections, we take snacks or water bottles out of our backpacks so we can walk faster, take in more scenery, and multitask more easily.

However, when the terrain is more treacherous, you may need to slow down, pay more attention to your feet, reach for a limb or a friend for stability, use a cane for better balance, and take more breaks. And forget about multitasking. We wouldn’t consider ourselves foolish for making that kind of intervention to manage that tripping hazard part of the path. Likewise, for winter blues, areas are more challenging and require correction.

Can you be gentle with yourself to allow slower, more mindful movement through your daily life routines? Can you figure out what more you need to achieve more balance? What can you temporarily let go of as you manage this difficult time? How can you make space for regular self-care routines, like eating and sleeping, even when they require more focused attention than other times of the year?

Take notes and go anyway: Rain and Umbrellas

We may have had different plans for how we would spend the first few weeks of the new year, or we may have been hoping that the gloomy days of last year would never reappear. It can be frustrating when things change, but two basic facts remain firm: Even if we don’t feel bad, the onus is still on us to figure out what to do.

Letting go of blame can help. Just as we didn’t cause the storm, it didn’t bring the winter blues to the surface. Some humans have nervous systems that are particularly sensitive to light, temperature, activity, and social engagement.

It may be frustrating and discouraging to know that the rain (or the blues) are coming back, but it’s no one’s fault. Deciding to hold and use an umbrella when necessary is like knowing that you will need to implement additional skills to manage your depression, even when it feels unfair or burdensome.

Even if it doesn’t cause a downturn, it’s important to cope, and getting outside has been shown to be an important intervention for mood management. Finding ways to get outdoors, even briefly, to get some fresh air and physical activity, and to break away from screen time are all invaluable interventions. This is especially true on difficult days.

The energy it takes to get out of the house to run an overdue errand, to take a cup of hot cocoa outside on a sunny day, to find something colorful in nature, or to find a social activity to engage in for a moment seems to come out of nowhere. It’s the same. Umbrella on a stormy day. These activities won’t change the weather outside, but they will improve the inside weather by a few degrees by providing some protection from the elements. The goal is to improve the current situation even a little.

Find your connection for protection: Want a draft?

When cyclists ride in a group, drafting is a term used to describe a method of turning in which bikers take turns riding up front (called a pull) and then drop to the back of the line and stick close behind other riders. Some rides allow all riders in the group to rotate, while others involve only a small subset of riders pulling at the front of the line. Schemes like this allow other riders to take full advantage of other riders’ wakes, reducing wind resistance and reducing the energy expenditure required to ride at the same speed.

During difficult times in our lives, “psychological drafting” may look like having a family member help in a significant way, telling friends about help they would appreciate, or finding additional helpful support. The process of drafting or relying on others is often very difficult. This is especially true when isolation could potentially become easier. Many high-functioning, smart, and conscientious individuals are not accustomed to having others help them in meaningful ways. There is often a misconception that you have to do it alone.

However, drafting in one form or another is part of most individuals’ life journey. Because the road is sometimes difficult and difficult. Allowing other people’s energies, experiences, and passions to act as a kind of “wind resistance” can be protective and life-changing.

Self-verification: The invisible pain of toothache

Coping with any kind of grief can be like a toothache. We all know the discomfort of tingling, but other people can’t see the painful, sensitive areas. We can explain it to them, but our subjective experience of the hurt is sometimes difficult to explain.

Sometimes we just don’t have the energy or desire to communicate consistently. We may smile weakly at socially appropriate moments, but we know that in the present our true, genuine joy is hindered by inner pain.

Different types of pain require different treatments. Toothache caused by a cavity may require a filling, while gum pain caused by an injury may simply need time to heal. Sometimes, some targeted treatments may be helpful for winter depression. This is especially true if your daily functioning begins to be significantly affected. Other times, compassionate patience is everything. But regardless of the stage or pace of intervention, self-examination is always valuable.