Massage & More: Help for Seasonal Affective Disorder

(Remember: none of this is meant to replace medical advice; if you’re suffering and nothing is helping, please consult with a physician.)

Winter in Erie can be hard. But if you suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), it can feel impossible.

This isn’t something to ignore. Our winters are long and can be extremely dark. We can easily go many days or even some weeks with no real sun.

Unless we’re some sort of snow bird, we likely can’t be on vacation down south for most of this time of year, so how can we help ourselves?

First, regular massage. Regular massage has been proven to help with depression and anxiety and that can also be of the seasonal variety. It, put simply, resets the happy chemicals in your brain, improves sleep, and increases overall energy. Try scheduling it once a week for a few weeks and see how it affects your mood.

Second, SAD isn’t a one-fix sort of ailment. You need to go at it from different angles and have daily habits to take you through this season. Here’s a short list of things you can try to integrate into your day to day schedule:

1. Ten minutes of early morning light (or 20 if it’s cloudy). Walk outside without sun glasses. You also can’t get the full benefit of morning light if you’re looking through any kind of window. And it needs to be low in the sky, morning light. The particular kid of light at that time enters your eyes and triggers a bundle of helpful chemical and neurological reactions.

2. A happy lite. The Cleveland Clinic even recommends this. Use it early and build your minutes over a few days, starting with just five. Too many minutes and minutes later in the day can cause insomnia. (Here’s a great small one.)

3. Get outside regardless of the time of day. Find a way to enjoy winter weather physically. Even if it’s just walking at the peninsula or Frontier park and trying to notice the beauty or taking photos. The more we engage winter, the better. Ignoring it is not the answer.

4. Try keeping a weather journal through the seasons over a couple of years. This can help you to better see and understand the patterns so it doesn’t feel like the weather is just happening TO you.

5. Get better winter gear. Often we’re fighting our clothes or feeling cold and/or getting wet and that is not helpful.

6. Add color. Look for colorful scarves and hats and mittens and coats. Everyone wearing gray and black isn’t helping anyone!

There’s a lot more you could try from herbal supplements to other self care modalities, but that’s enough ideas for now. We’d love to hear from anyone who has a trick up their sleeves that we could share with more people!