VIDEO. How to fight winter blues?

“We know too little about this disorder and when we live it, it’s really very guilt-inducing. We feel silly to get depressed for that when, in the end, it’s much more common than we think.“Winter Blues, or Seasonal Affective Disorder, is a psychological disorder that is triggered in some people as winter approaches. For Delphine Py, psychologist, there are ways to get out of this depression.

The first way to fight against this phenomenon is to expose yourself to daylight. “When we are less exposed to daylight, it will affect our biological clock, especially with melatonin, which is the sleep hormone, which is secreted in the evening and which allows us to fall asleep. In the morning, normally, daylight comes through the eyes and will stop the production of melatonin and therefore, it will allow us to wake up. There, as we are less exposed to daylight, some melatonin will remain and we will feel sleepy, tired.”, explains Delphine Py. Otherwise, light therapy also works, and gives the same effect.

Exercising early in the morning would also help lift your spirits, as would seeing people and going out. Finally, accepting winter and its constraints is also fundamental. “What’s important to understand about emotions in general, all unpleasant emotions, is that it’s not really the situation that creates the emotion but our interpretation of the situation. (…) If I say to myself: ‘Yes, it’s winter, it’s cold, but I can do really cool things, I can go skiing, I can drink a chocolate, I can make a wood fire’, well then, I’m going to have emotions that are going to be much more appropriate. There may be unpleasant emotions and also pleasant emotions, but in any case, I am not going to add very, very unpleasant emotions to this situation. I will take a little distance and accept the time and the situation as it is.”, concludes the psychologist.