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Stress coping skills

Seasonal Depression, AKA Seasonal Affective Disorder

November 12, 2021 by ABL Staff 2 Comments

Charlotte-SantosCharlotte Santos, ASW

Daylight savings time has ended, the weather is changing, the days are getting shorter, and we’re all getting a lot less sunlight. Some people notice that they experience more depressive feelings in the winter and clinically there may be a very good reason. Seasonal depression, diagnostically known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), is something that affects millions of people each year. SAD is characterized by depression and depressive symptoms appearing and lasting specifically during a particular season of the year. Most people experience depression symptoms beginning in the late fall and lasting through the winter, experiencing relief at the beginning of spring time. A much smaller portion of the population experience depression specificity during the summer season and feel relief during the fall and winter months.

Causes of SAD are less understood compared to other disorders and are still being researched. What we do know and understand is that changes in the amount of sunlight we absorb significantly affects our internal clock, our vitamin D levels, and how much melatonin (sleep chemicals) and serotonin (depression fighting mood chemicals) our brain produces.

Similar to Major Depressive Disorder, people experiencing SAD may notice

  • Fatigue during the day
  • Difficulty sleeping at night
  • Increased isolation & social withdrawal
  • Changes in appetite
  • Weight gain
  • Difficulty concentrating
  • Increased irritability
  • Increased anxiety
  • Feelings of hopelessness
  • Loss of interest in the activities you used to enjoy
  • Thoughts of death or suicide

If you have had a of history of experiencing depression during a specific time of year, a mental health professional will be able to assess you for Seasonal Affective Disorder and discuss various treatment options such as therapy, medication, and light therapy.

A therapist can help you minimize the severity of your SAD symptoms by helping you create an individualized treatment plan to tackle your seasonal depression. We can assist you with tracking and identifying when your SAD symptoms begin so you can be proactive with treatment to minimize symptoms, help you create a concrete and supportive plan of how to manage symptoms when they are at their peak, and help support and guide you into a healthier transition when the seasons change. A therapist will be able to offer informed and professional support to help you navigate ways to take care of your mind and body, and safely consider options to enhance the benefits of therapy such as medication to help with mood, or light therapy to help to supplement the lack of sun light.

We’re here to support you through this journey and can help you find the treatment that is right for you and your lifestyle.

To inquire at A Balanced Life to find a best fit therapist for you go to our contact page:

https://www.abalancedlifetahoe.com/contact-us/

Filed Under: Depression, Seasonal Affect Disorder, Stress coping skills, Trauma Tagged With: depression, seasonal depression, trauma therapy

Coping With Covid Burnout

August 7, 2021 by Lindsay Simon, Clinical Director Leave a Comment

By, Lindsay Simon, LMFT

When will this all be over? It’s a common question and though vaccinations are underway, it sometimes feels like the end to COVID life can’t come soon enough.

A negative mentality can lead to frustration, anxiety, stress, or feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. It’s true that what we once knew as normal may not look or feel the same for a while. Here are some steps toward finding a sense of new normalcy and making the most of the current situation with COVID-19.

Focus on the controllables. Focusing on things out of your control is a guaranteed way to increase stress, anxiety, frustration and resentments. Other peoples actions, beliefs and choices are out of your control. The fact that we are living during a global pandemic is out of your control. The past and the future are out of your control. Try to make a list of things out of reach or out of your control on one side and the things in your control on the other side. Things in your control are your thoughts, actions and boundaries you have in the world and with other people. Accept what you can’t change and focus your energy on what you can control in order to improve your mental and emotional health.

Find ways to be grateful. Appreciate what you do have. Maybe it’s a job, a relationship, a pet or a person in your life, having hot water, the ability to walk, or the ability to spend time in the great outdoors. A habit that I practice daily is waking up and consciously implementing gratitude for my pillow, soft sheets and bed so that I start my brain on a path of positivity each day. Name and appreciate these things daily. A daily gratitude journal where you write down 3 good things that happened that day, and how they made you feel, can help form this healthy thinking habit.

Take time for reflection. Journaling can help organize your thoughts and feelings, and find meaning from difficult life experiences. Topics to consider writing about: the losses you have experienced and their impacts on you, ways you have shown strength or grown, and relationships that have improved during the pandemic.

Practice acceptance and forgiveness. Research shows that people who practice forgiving others and accepting things the way they are lead happier, healthier lives. This includes self-acceptance. Remember, we are all doing the best we can given the skills, awareness and knowledge we have at the time.

Reset your goals. Create professional and personal goals that are safe and reasonable. Break them down into smaller steps. As you achieve a step, check it off of a list. Remember, it is better to try and fail than to have never tried at all.

Prioritize ties with loved ones. Look at how this past year has strengthened some relationships and reconnected you with others. Actively foster these relationships. Have a picnic or go for a bike ride or walk together. If you feel stuck, ask for help from a trusted friend, family member, or trained professional, such as a therapist.

I hope these tips can help you during this difficult time in the world. A skilled therapist can help guide you through this difficult time so that you can come out of it stronger, more resilient and leading a more fulfilling life.  We have 6 highly skilled therapists at A Balanced Life that are available to help you on your journey.  Check out our options of therapists here: https://www.abalancedlifetahoe.com/our-therapists/.

Or call our office (530) 544-1748 and Terra or Brittany can help answer your questions and find the best fit therapist for you.

Filed Under: Blog, COVID-19, Stress coping skills

Coping with Anxiety in These Difficult Times

March 26, 2020 by Lindsay Simon, Clinical Director 4 Comments

 

The article’s author, demonstrating social distancing.

The uncertainty and general threat surrounding coronavirus are causing anxiety and fear. I’d like to share with you some information about and strategies for dealing with these primal emotions.

First, it will be helpful if we define and differentiate between anxiety and fear. Anxiety is future-oriented thinking based on imagined worst-case scenarios (“What if” thinking, also known as catastrophic thinking or “future-tripping”). Fear is worry about a situation that is happening in the here and now and for which there is evidence.

The human brain is an amazing organ that has helped us survive and evolve for millions of years. Our brains have an amazing ability to anticipate and avoid or reduce the impact of future dangers based on past and current circumstances. When the anticipatory processes of the brain match the severity of threat and danger, this is a helpful, adaptive feature. However, when there is a lot of uncertainty about a novel situation, and a lack of data to assess the actual danger level (as is the situation we are all in with the coronavirus) the brain will still try to evaluate the potential threat in an attempt to avoid a negative outcome.

Without enough information to go on, the brain fills in the blanks, which can create on one extreme unhelpful and irrational anxiety, hysteria, and panic. On the other extreme, we can ignore facts and real threats that are supported by evidence, leading to potentially risky and harmful choices that could put oneself or others at risk. Ideally, we want to be somewhere in the middle, thinking that is based on evidence, data and reality while doing what we can to keep ourselves and others safe.

Here is an example of the difference:

Anxiety: “What if we don’t go back to work and I end up homeless and living on the streets”

Fear: “This is scary to not know when we will be able to go back to work.”

Living in a state of anxiety releases stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, and when these are flowing our immune system’s effectiveness is reduced. When our body senses a threat it de-prioritizes fighting off infections. So remaining anxious increases your risk of getting sick and staying sick for longer. Once we have stress hormones flowing in our body, with increased heart rate and anxious chest breathing, this gives our brain feedback that there is an actual threat so our mind will start to race and look for more threats. If there are no immediate threats, our brain will then look for future threats and more “what if” thinking will happen, which will release more stress hormones. This creates an anxiety feedback loop. When in this state, the part of our brain that makes rational decisions and problem solves is no longer working, so we are more likely to make decisions that are rash, defensive, attacking, and unhelpful. If you are able to think fear thoughts (realistic and rational thoughts based on evidence) rather than anxious thoughts, then it is easier to do the next step of acceptance, letting go, and refocusing on what is in your control.

Let’s explore more of what CAN be done:

1. Practice compassion and validation for yourself and others: validate yourself and others that this really is a scary time of uncertainty. There are a lot of unknowns and that can be scary. Validation can help reduce anxiety in yourself and others as long as it stays with validating emotions, events, situations that there is evidence for, and not made up scenarios.

2. Radical Acceptance: this is the concept of radically accepting things as they are rather than wishing they were different. Much of human suffering comes from wishing things are different than they are. We can generate internal peace by accepting things that are out of our control, and refocusing on what is IN our control. Try writing on the left side of a piece of paper “IN my control” and on the right side “OUT of my control” and create a list related to your current worries. Your behaviors, reactions, and thoughts are in your control, and other peoples’ behaviors, thoughts, emotions, reactions, the news, and all events outside of you are out of your control. For all the things that are out of our control, we want to practice radical acceptance. When anxious ask yourself, is this in my control or out of my control? Re-focus your mental and physical energy to the things you can control. For those things that are out of our control, radical acceptance looks like acknowledging the situation without judging the situation or criticizing yourself or others. Radical acceptance might sound like “It’s no use fighting the past,” “The future is out of my control and worrying about it won’t change the outcome and is a waste of time and energy,” or “It’s frustrating that I have to work from home, but I accept that is how it has to be right now to keep myself and others safe.”

3. Practice relaxation and mindfulness strategies: future tripping leads to anxiety.
Instead focus on the here and now. One way to get in touch with and pay attention to the present is to connect with your 5 senses. You can also practice calm belly breathing techniques and guided relaxations or meditations. I suggest using youtube and typing in “guided calm breathing” and “guided relaxation.” Use this time to improve your relaxation and mindfulness skills.

4. Exercise. You might not be able to do your usual activities like going to classes, the gym, or the ski hill, but you can go for walks or do at home exercises. An example of at home exercise is Fiton which is a free exercise app you can do from home with no equipment and you can connect with your friends to share your workouts.

5. Challenge irrational, unhelpful “what if” thinking (called catastrophic thinking or future tripping) to come up with more helpful, rational thinking. Ask yourself, What is the evidence for this?, What is the actual chance of this happening?, What might be the best case scenario?, Will any amount of worry change the outcome?, and What would I tell a friend to make them feel better if they said this to me?

6. Acknowledge and label anxiety as it comes up as a fear of uncertainty, not reality. You can even thank your brain for doing its job of trying to protect you, and let it know you got this and it’s going to be ok. Even if you don’t know that, remember that thinking calming thoughts increases your immune system functioning and your decision making skills, so it’s worth practicing.

7. Practice gratitude. Neurons that fire together wire together, so our habitual thinking
creates pathways that our brain will unconsciously repeat. If we focus on appreciating
what we have in the here and now, we can start to create positive thinking pathways that lead to less stress and more physical and emotional health and happiness. You can start a gratitude journal where each evening you write down 3 things that happened that you are grateful for and WHY you are grateful for them (this last part is essential to get the full neurochemical benefits of a gratitude journal).

8. Avoid/limit the news. If we watch and focus on negative things, we will wire our brain towards negativity. Most news is exaggerated and full of invalid information with the goal of getting viewers hooked. You can have a supportive friend tell you if something major happens instead, or give yourself 5-10 minutes a day to check in on the status of things.

9. Take advantage of the gift of time. (If you’re lucky enough to have it.) We often complain about not having enough time to work on self care, self reflection, reading, continuing education. Use this gift of time to take an online course, read that book you’ve been meaning to read, or start planning a vacation.

10. Stay connected with friends and family. Use technology to stay connected during this time, and maybe teach someone who needs these tools how to use them!

11. Engage in counseling. If you feel you need support from a licensed professional therapist with anxiety, depression, stress, or relationship problems that are arising or exacerbated during this difficult time, we offer tele-therapy and online counseling services, using highly effective evidence-based practices such as CBT, DBT, Solution-Focused Therapy and The Gottman Method Couples Therapy.

 

Filed Under: Anxiety, Radical acceptance, Stress coping skills Tagged With: anxiety, coping skills, Radical acceptance, relaxation

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