How Counselling can Help with Winter Blues
As Canadians, our mental health can dive during the winter months.“About 15% of people in Canada experience the winter blues, while only 2-3% of people in Canada experience SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder).”* If that doesn’t sound like a lot, that’s about 5,737,500 Canadians experiencing the winter blues yearly! So, how can counselling or therapy help with that?
When you’re feeling low - on energy, motivation or interest - it’s easy to blame yourself. You may start to think you are lazy and lack discipline or willpower. This is a common human reaction, where our minds are trying to find a reason why we feel so crappy. Unfortunately, our brains don’t always perform optimally, with a medley of errors that can occur. These gaffes in our thinking are known as ‘cognitive biases.’ They are glitches in our logic and ability to be rational. It’s helpful to know about them in general. But regarding winter blues, it’s helpful to know about one in particular.
Attribution bias is the mind’s habit of explaining behaviour as a reflection of a person’s character rather than any situational or environmental factors. For example, if you see someone trip and stumble, you are more likely to think, “Oh, they must be clumsy” rather than “Oh, I wonder if the floor is slippery or uneven.” When someone we meet is short with us, we think, “Wow, they are rude,” rather than,” Wow, they must be having a bad day”.
Our brains automatically attribute the cause of behaviour to the person- not their surroundings or circumstances. So, we place responsibility for our behaviour on internal factors ( our abilities, our resilience, our worth) rather than external ones. We think we are not trying hard enough, instead of being simply fatigued due to a lack of sunshine and social isolation that comes with winter. We blame ourselves - which only compounds the winter blues even more.
So what can be done?
Counselling works in a variety of ways. One such benefit is hearing yourself voice these thoughts out loud to an impartial person. It can be profound and shocking. First, it gets these junky thoughts out of your head, clearing out some needed space. Second, verbalizing the thoughts allows you to really hear them. Would you say this to a friend? Probably not. A psychotherapist can help us identify the errors in our thinking. More importantly, they can teach us how to fix them.
Along with counselling, here are some other strategies to fend off the winter blues:
Get as much sunshine as you can. Even if you’re not a snowbird, getting outside, especially in the morning, can make a difference in your well-being.
Move your body. You see this advice everywhere. I, too, roll my eyes. But exercise has been proven, without a shadow of a doubt, to improve mood and mental health.
Keep good sleep hygiene. See the following articles for more information about this!
Why Sleep Matters & How to Sleep Better with Andrea
Schedule time to unplug- particularly from social media.
For other great ideas or more personalised strategies, set up a FREE consultation with me!
ALICIA
*Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 2000
