It's the harsh winter season, and if you're feeling depressed, listless, insomnia, or feeling unwell for a while, you're likely to suffer from "winter depression."
Winter depression, also known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD), is a type of depression that occurs due to changes in the weather. Winter depression can also be mild, moderate, and severe. Mild people are in a poor mood every day, lose enthusiasm for life and work, and gradually lose their ability to socialize and work, and even have suicidal tendencies.
Causes
1. Weather changes: The cold weather in winter can easily lead to the inhibition of the body's metabolism and physiological functions such as respiratory rate and heart rate, which will cause brain cells to be relatively hypoxic and in a state of low excitability.
2. Biological factors: In winter, the days are short, the nights are long, and the sunshine hours are short, which can easily lead to human biological rhythm disorders and endocrine disorders, resulting in emotional and mental state disorders. At the same time, with the reduction of exercise in winter, the positive regulation mechanism of exercise is lost, and people's emotional level will also be affected.
3. Psychosocial factors: Some negative life events, such as divorce, unemployment, life and death, etc., are also important causes of winter depression.
Prevention and control measures
How to prevent winter depression? Psychologists make 4 suggestions:
1. Increase the time for light and outdoor exercise.
One of the main factors for the occurrence of winter depression is the lack of light in winter, and increasing the time of sun exposure and outdoor exercise has a good effect on preventing the occurrence of winter depression. Regular participation in outdoor exercise can activate the body's immune factors, improve brain cell activity, enhance the body's metabolic function, and eliminate excess metabolites and toxins from the body, thereby effectively preventing depression.
2. Maintain regular and adequate sleep, and combine work and rest.
In winter, in particular, you should fix the time of going to bed and getting up, reduce staying up late, try to avoid the intake of stimulants such as coffee and strong tea before going to bed, and avoid strenuous activities. You can listen to the soothing ** sleep aid.
3. Eat more fruits and vegetables, and supplement vitamin D appropriately
Pay attention to control the intake of sugars and carbohydrates, and increase the intake of fresh vegetables and fruits rich in minerals and vitamins. At the same time, proper consumption of vitamin D can not only make up for the lack of vitamin D caused by insufficient sunlight exposure in winter, but also have a certain effect on mood regulation.
4. Use color to adjust the work and home environment.
You can choose warm wallpaper, hang colorful paintings, and raise some green plants in the office or at home to improve and regulate depression through color changes.