The Impact of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) in Arkansas
Seasonal Affective Disorder, which can also be known as seasonal depression or SAD, is a condition that many people in Arkansas will experience in their lifetime. As the seasons change, some may experience significant changes in their moods.
Seasonal Affective Disorder is considered a type of depression that is triggered by the changing of seasons, and generally occurs when there is less sunlight in the colder months of the year. However, for some, SAD may occur in the warmer months, with symptoms alleviating come fall and winter.
Symptoms of seasonal depression include anxiety, feelings of sadness, guilt, and hopelessness, fatigue, loss of interest in things that you may usually enjoy, oversleeping or difficulty sleeping, overeating or lack of appetite, social withdrawal, and thoughts of death or suicide.
How Arkansans may experience seasonal depression, and ways to get through it
Since the Pandemic, many people in Arkansas are still navigating a “new normal”. Many jobs are now remote. There are job disparities. So many people in Arkansas and the U.S. as a whole are experiencing new levels of inflation and subsequent anxiety.
So, as fall begins and winter looms beyond, it’s important that Arkansans who experience SAD find ways to prepare for the cold season ahead. Arkansas licensed clinical social worker Kimberly Key-Bell suggests that Arkansans who experience SAD during Arkansas’s change of seasons should try to carve out a path by doing things that serve their mental health, not others.
“If it’s healthy, if it’s productive, and it’s positive, you may wanna go just sit by the lake and people are like ‘Why are you sitting by the lake?’ Because it works for you. Validate what you feel, don’t try to stuff it… Find a therapist. Find someone that you can confide in that you can talk to, share with. There may be more going on but there is help available and there are answers available.” – Kimberly Key-Bell
During times of heightened seasonal depression, motivating yourself to go outside or socialize can feel impossible. Start out small, and when weather is permitting, take a short walk. Getting your blood circulating can help alleviate symptoms of seasonal depression. If you don’t have the energy to socialize, try putting yourself in the vicinity of social situations. This may mean that you go to the library and read a book in the company of others, or go to the gym with a friend and work out together with your headphones on.
For others in Arkansas, it’s more than just the change of seasons that brings on seasonal depression. The holidays may be a reminder of loss. It’s hard to experience a happy holiday season if someone is missing at the table.
It’s important to not isolate yourself for the duration of the holiday season. Use this time to reflect on positive memories, and to surround yourself with those you love as much as you can.
During this season and every other, Chenal Family Therapy is here to help.
If you feel that you experience symptoms of seasonal depression, therapy can help. Both in person and online therapy are available at a variety of locations here in Arkansas. Visit our services and online therapy pages to learn more about what options are available to you.
SPP is a subset of Chenal Family Therapy, PLC, ACEP Provider Number: 7233