How do you cope with seasonal depression
i moved to california
but before that:
- therapy and medication management (always good ideas).
- lots of socks/hoodies/blankets + anything to maximize coziness and improve sensory wellbeing. seriously, buy a super soft blanket.
- asmr videos
- special attention to sleep schedule to maximize daylight.
- spent time researching tropical places/playing theoretical beach vacations. digital tropical wallpaper, followed photo-heavy blogs featuring things like travel, flowers, sun, etc, anything to change my mental landscape
- cultivated soothing rituals. this can be anything (e.g. lots of people like tea). i personally loved taking long hot showers
- big one: kept my room clean and inviting. when the outdoors becomes uncomfortable, it’s extra important to make your indoor environment as welcoming as possible.
- made a list of favorite shows/movies/comics/books/etc, stuff i’d seen a dozen times before. when worse came to worse, forced myself to choose something to watch/read. really helped distract me through the bad patches.
- force-fed self mellow-but-upbeat soundtracks. the music we listen to has a big effect
- found exercises i could do easily indoors for 5-15 min at a time (it turns a few minutes of push-ups here and there are way more doable for me than say, jogging or getting to the gym). also a good way to keep my toes warm during winter.
feel free to add!
