Coping with Seasonal Affective Disorder: Recognizing the Signs as Days Get Shorter
Have you noticed your mood shifting as the days get shorter? Maybe you're dragging yourself out of bed more than usual, or everything just feels harder when it gets dark at 5 PM. If you're a young adult feeling this way, or a parent watching your college student struggle more as fall turns to winter, you're not imagining it.
What's Really Going On?
Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, is basically depression that shows up like clockwork when the seasons change. It usually hits in late fall and sticks around through winter. And no, it's not just complaining about the weather or wishing you lived somewhere warmer. It's an actual shift in how your brain works when you're getting less natural light.
What It Looks Like
SAD doesn't always announce itself clearly. Sometimes it creeps up slowly. Here's what you might notice:
Feeling down or hopeless more days than not
Not caring about things that usually matter to you
Wanting to sleep all the time, or actually sleeping 10-12 hours and still feeling exhausted
Craving pasta, bread, and comfort food constantly
Your brain feels foggy when you're trying to study or focus
Canceling plans because you just can't deal with people
Moving through your day like you're wading through mud
For parents, you might see your kid sleeping until 2 PM on weekends, avoiding your calls, or getting weirdly quiet when you do talk.
Why This Hits Young Adults Hard
If you're in college or just starting out in the working world, SAD can feel like terrible timing. You've got midterms, deadlines, and pressure to have everything figured out. The world doesn't care that you can barely function when it's dark before dinner. Add in the stress of maybe going home for holidays and having to explain why you're not doing great, and it's a lot.
What Can Actually Help
Here's the thing about SAD: there are things that work, but you have to actually do them (which is hard when SAD makes you want to do nothing).
Get some bright light in the morning. Those special light boxes really do help. Sit near one for 20-30 minutes while you're having coffee or scrolling your phone. It's not a cure, but it can take the edge off.
Keep your schedule somewhat normal. I know this sounds impossible when you want to hibernate, but going to bed and waking up at roughly the same time actually helps. Your brain likes predictability.
Don't ghost everyone. SAD makes you want to cancel every plan and avoid all humans. Fight that urge at least sometimes. You don't have to be social every day, but complete isolation makes everything worse.
Move around. You don't need to become a gym person. Walk to get your coffee instead of using the drive-through. Take the stairs. Something is better than nothing.
Talk to your doctor about vitamin D. When you're not getting sun, you're probably not getting enough vitamin D, and that matters for mood.
When You Need More Help
Sometimes self-help strategies aren't enough, and that's okay. If SAD is messing with your ability to get through school, keep your job, or maintain relationships, that's when therapy becomes really important.
Virtual therapy works well for this because you don't have to drive somewhere in the dark when you're already struggling. We work with young adults throughout Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware who are dealing with exactly this.
CBT helps you notice the thought patterns that make seasonal depression worse and gives you concrete ways to change them. When your brain is telling you everything is terrible and will always be terrible, we work on making that voice quieter.
DBT gives you actual skills for dealing with the hard days. Not just "think positive" nonsense, but real strategies for getting through when everything feels heavy.
If there's other stuff underneath the seasonal depression, like past trauma that gets louder when you're already vulnerable, EMDR can help process that so it's not adding to the pile.
The Bottom Line
If this sounds like what you're going through, you're not broken and you're not lazy. SAD is real, it's hard, and it doesn't mean you're failing at life.
Parents, if you're seeing these changes in your young adult, bringing it up gently can open the door to getting help. "I've noticed you seem different lately" works better than "What's wrong with you?"
And if you're the one struggling, asking for help doesn't mean you're weak. It means you're smart enough to know when you need support.
Winter is coming whether we like it or not, but you don't have to white-knuckle your way through it alone.
Healing Hearts Healthy Minds offers virtual therapy in CT, PA, NJ, and DE for young adults dealing with seasonal depression and the messy reality of growing up.