Mental Health Minute: Managing seasonal affective disorder

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — If you’ve lived in Idaho for a while then you’re no stranger to cold, dark and windy winters, but what happens when the dreary weather affects your mood and what can you do to help manage that?

KMVT takes a closer look at the impacts of seasonal affective disorder in this week’s mental health minute.

“You might be someone who has not struggled with anxiety or depression before and then all of the sudden come fall and winter you start to feel really crummy, you’re not feeling like yourself, we have a name for that, and we have treatment for it,” said Kate Hanselman, a psychiatric nurse practitioner

The name for that is seasonal affective disorder or “SAD.”

This type of depression often peaks in the first full week of November and will again in 2024 as colder weather settles in and we see less sunlight due to daylight saving time according to Thriveworks Counseling.

“As far as managing it, there’s a lot of things we can do. First of all, realizing that it’s happening is key...also medication can be really helpful, we can help you with medication at any time of the year for sure, but for a lot of people it’s helpful to start now so that things don’t start feeling worse and we can catch these symptoms early,” Hanselman said.

If those things don’t help Hanselman encourages you to reach out to a professional.

And it doesn’t necessarily have to be someone who specializes in mental health.

“Even if you don’t want to talk to a mental health professional, talk to primary care. Go to your doctor and tell them that I’m not feeling like myself, they can do lab work that will show us maybe your Vitamin D is low, most people’s levels are,” Hanselman said.

Hanselman adds that taking medication or a Vitamin D supplement during the winter months is not uncommon and can be a huge help, especially for those who work indoors.

“If you’re not feeling your best you don’t have to just muscle through the darker months, you don’t. And maybe it just means boosting your coping skills like maybe instead of staying inside with a friend you bundle up and take a walk outside. Maybe you take your lunch out of the office, if you’re in an office so that you actually leave the building during sunlight,” Hanselman said.