Seasonal Affective Disorder
Well it is winter. The days are shorter, it gets dark earlier and its going to get very very cold. With this change in the seasons, sometimes we can notice a change in ourselves....
Well it is winter. The days are shorter, it gets dark earlier and its going to get very very cold. With this change in the seasons, sometimes we can notice a change in ourselves....
‘Tis the season. Even though a lot of us have been spending so much “quality time” at home with our families, there is a special something about the holidays (mostly Thanksgiving and Christmas, but all the holidays in this season) that brings out traits in people that may lay dormant during the rest of the year.
As I’ve mentioned before, I struggle with binge eating. That being said, one of the biggest holidays revolving around food is coming up fast. This causes so much anxiety for me leading up to it.
The process of going from experiencing symptoms of impacted mental health to getting the treatment you need is a unique journey that takes everyone on a different path. Personally, seeking professional help didn’t seem like a viable option for years after I knew I was suffering from a mental illness that was making my day-to-day life miserable.
I grew up always being overweight, I was that kid that tried every diet in the book, or every form of exercise and still wasn’t able to drop the weight. During what may be my entire childhood, I binge ate when no one was home – I have accounts where I would eat tubs of raw cookie dough, or containers of ice cream when no one was home; after school and alone time was just dangerous for me.
I have found myself staring at a screen for endless hours of day. Now, with online school, we, students, are constantly on our laptops. Whether it is to read, type papers, watch videos, attend Zoom classes, or even watching Netflix, I have recently been feeling consumed by a screen. After so long, I get a piercing headache and I know it’s from the excessive use of the technology that we have today.
So as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I struggle with binge eating, depression, and anxiety. Some days it can be SO mentally draining. A lot of my closer friends don’t share the same struggles that I do, or none at all. Thinking about this during some of my lows make me wonder, “why me?”
Does it feel like sometimes, your mental health ebbs and flows with your hormonal cycle? You’re definitely not alone. I used to think I was losing it: because not only did I display physical symptoms of PMS, but I would also notice a flare-up of symptoms of my mental illness, or an episode of severe depression or anxiety which coincided with this time during my cycle.
Listen. We know today is incredibly stressful. Even in a year of local and world events that not just lean, but completely skew on the negative side, the election today feels like the season finale of what many consider to be the worst year ever.
Recently I sensed a change in my mood. My thoughts have been racing, I have been feeling more and more fatigued and just overall worried and anxious.
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