As the days get shorter and winter closes in, many people feel like hibernating. We start sleeping more, eating more and avoiding social contact. The effects can be particularly oppressive for people with depression, many of whom feel escalating dread as the end of daylight saving time approaches. Here are eight ways to keep the black dog at bay after you turn back the clocks.
8 Ways to Beat the Winter Blues
Getty Images
Like socializing, exercise is something that depressed people often dread and seek to avoid; however, it will dramatically improve your mood if you can get yourself do it. "My clinical impression is that regular aerobic workouts can markedly lift depressed mood in about 33% of patients," says Terman. "But if they don't keep it up, they quickly crash." To motivate yourself, choose an activity that you enjoy (or at least, hate less than other exercises) and schedule it at regular times, so that it becomes a routine. Exercising repeatedly at the same time each day or days of the week helps create a habit, and the more you repeat that habit, the harder it becomes to let yourself deviate from it. Remind yourself before each workout that you will feel great once you get going — and afterward — and that there is no reason for feeling dread or avoiding exercise. The more you mentally reconfirm the direct link between exercise and rise in mood, the less credence you'll lend the dread over time. MORE: How Understanding Drug Addiction Can Motivate You to Exercise
