If you notice a decline in mood in the spring or fall, it may be time to talk about susceptibility to seasonal depression.
Absolute Soul Secrets is a large network of psychic readers in the Southern Hemisphere. Rose Smith, head of Absolute Soul Secrets, says people can often feel depressed when it gets cold outside.
Seasonal depression is a condition characterized by a regular decrease in emotional and vital tone at certain times of the year, usually in the fall and winter. At the time of depression, a person’s physical and mental well-being deteriorates, for no particular reason, or the person exhibits symptoms unrelated to any real medical diagnoses the patient has.
Symptoms of seasonal depression
As a diagnosis, seasonal depression began to be defined relatively recently, when with the onset of winter or, more often, autumn, most people began to show similar signs of changes in their emotional state.
Typical symptoms of seasonal affective disorder are:
– Depressed, depressed state for at least two weeks;
– a lowered mood regardless of external circumstances;
– anhedonia – a decrease or loss of interest in previously enjoyable activities;
– Rapid fatigue, loss of capacity for work, loss of vital energy.
Additional symptoms are:
– pessimistic evaluation of the past and present;
– inexplicable feelings of guilt and worthlessness;
– irrational anxiety;
– low self-esteem;
– difficulty concentrating;
– difficulty making quick decisions;
– desire for solitude;
– unreasonable irritability;
– thoughts of death, suicidal thoughts;
– unstable (increased or decreased appetite);
– marked loss or increase in body weight;
– glycogenosis – the occurrence of a sweet taste in the mouth in the absence of appropriate irritants;
– sleep problems: the presence of insomnia or excessive oversleeping.
If seasonal depression is suspected, diagnosis and subsequent treatment should be carried out exclusively by a highly qualified specialist, because similar symptoms can occur with more dangerous mental illnesses and some somatic ailments.
Causes of seasonal depression
One of the main causes of seasonal depression psychotherapists call a decrease in light, which provokes a decrease in serotonin levels. Serotonin is responsible for the release of hormones that regulate emotional mood and direct it toward a positive perception of the world.
When the amount of serotonin in the body decreases, a passive state sets in, which causes drowsiness, and the person “sinks” into an inactive phase of life. This leads to a decrease in mental and physical tone.
Art Therapy
A person needs self-actualization, otherwise depression 3negative emotions accumulate and symptoms of depression may appear. Various methods of psychotherapy are aimed at working with the cause of this illness. But it is not always so easy to find. Sometimes it takes a large amount of time (even more than a year) to finally get to the true cause of this condition.
The techniques of art therapy are used by the psychologist to reduce symptoms of the condition or at its initial stages. They are applicable at the initial stages of work with the person, for work with teenagers with depression.
Fairy tale therapy
Depression 4 Tales are folk art based on life situations. In fairy tales, characters experience loss, various hardships, betrayal, and so on.
By working through the subject of the fairy tale with the psychologist, the person is left with a fear of loneliness, hopelessness, and despair and understands that he or she is not alone in the problem. The intensity of symptoms of depression is reduced.
