Winter is approaching in Victoria (in all its bitterly cold glory). While the December holidays may bring cheer for the first few weeks of the cold weather season, January and February can bring dark and cold times.
Seasonal affective disorder (or SAD) is a biological process in which the body reacts to a sudden reduction in sunlight and outdoor activity. SAD is a real and very common condition that causes millions of people around the world to experience feelings of depression each year.
While more serious cases may require medical attention*, those who find themselves feeling a little gloomier during winter may improve their mood with a series of good habits.
Find your eudaimonic bliss
Psychologists frequently recognize two broad categories of happiness. Firstly, there is hedonic pleasure, which refers to activities that inspire short-term happiness, like drinking a beer after work or scrolling on Instagram before bed. Secondly, there is eudaimonic pleasure, which relates to habits that influence your overall emotional baseline, such as reading, spending time outside, meditating or exercising.
There is a cultural connotation for both sets of behaviors. Hedonic habits, or hedonism, is considered bad, while eudaimonic behavior is considered good. However, the reality is a bit more complicated.
Hedonic behavior can be detrimental to your well-being when it occurs at the exclusion of other habits. If you only know how to relax with alcohol and screen time, you may struggle to build long-term healthy habits.
That doesn’t mean your life needs to be filled with a strictly nutritious diet and brisk winter jogs. It does mean you might think about what is happening to your brain when you make certain decisions. Hedonic behavior activates a short-term reward response in your brain, meaning your body feels an immediate rush of dopamine. The more often you rely on a hedonic behavior, the less effective the reward response will be.
Eudaimonic habits, on the other hand, can be scaled up. They work by increasing levels of serotonin—the chemical responsible for feelings of wellness and peace—and reducing cortisol levels—the chemical responsible for feelings of stress and anxiety.
A person can rely on both eudaimonic and hedonic sources of pleasure to stay happy and healthy during the winter.
When weather brings you inside
When you can’t go out for a long winter jog, or you just don’t find yourself in a wellness frame of mind, you can feel free to indulge in a moderate array of hedonic behaviors.
Here is what a healthy evening of indulgence might look like – You get home from work on a Friday afternoon, wearing the weight of the entire week on your shoulders. For the last five days, you’ve run on the treadmill and done yoga to keep the winter blues away. But for now, the idea of doing either is unappealing to you.
Instead, you get out of your work clothes and take a long, hot shower. After, you change into something comfortable, and spend an hour or so on your phone doing something that interests you, You may choose to catch up with social media or visit an online casino in Canada.
After you’ve vegged out for a while, you order a pizza, pour yourself a nice glass of wine and stream your favourite show while you wait for dinner to arrive. Once you’ve eaten, you read a chapter or two of a good book and get to bed at a decent hour.
All things in moderation
The above scenario is healthy because it involves a moderate approach to both hedonic and eudaimonic behaviors.
You’re getting a dopamine rush in the form of screen time. At the same time, you’re also giving yourself a bit of time to wind down naturally in the form of a long, contemplative shower, a short reading session and a reasonable bedtime. In this scenario, you’re giving your brain a healthy dose of both serotonin and dopamine.
Some days, you’ll want to lean more heavily on activities that are structured, such as regularly scheduled exercise, carefully planned meals and consistently scheduled bedtimes. Other days, you’ll need to indulge a bit. Both activities are healthy when they are applied in moderation.
The winter blues are hard but they don’t need to be debilitating. Recognizing that SAD exists is a good first step toward fighting it. By taking the time to understand what you are going through, you can give yourself the tools needed to safely ride out the hard times.
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*The advice provided in this article is not meant to be a substitute for professional medical advice. Consult with a medical professional if you are struggling to deal with your seasonal affective disorder.
