Author: psychotherapyinenglishaustria

When the days get shorter and the sun seems to disappear earlier day by day, when the January skies are grey in grey and when February seems an endless eternal night, some of us develop seasonally affective disorder, also referred to as SAD. Once Christmas and the New Year’s Celebrations are over and done with, winter just never seems to end. Some people then develop symptoms of depression, even though they are usually not suffering from this debilitating condition. Why is that the case? Biologically speaking, our levels of serotonin – the neurotransmitter that is held responsible for our mood regulation – change. At the same time, our melatonin levels also change: Melatonin is the hormone that regulates our sleep patterns. We feel sleepy during the day and find it difficult to get up in the morning. With the sun vanishing earlier from our daily lives and returning later in the morning, our bodies also go into hibernation. So yes, seasonally affective disorder does indeed exist. We should thus not be surprised when our moods are lower in the winter months and our lives sometimes seem grey and meaningless. How can we combat the winter blues, though? As with a lot of other challenges that our minds have to deal with: it is always best just to welcome these symptoms into our lives. Acceptance offers just that little space of control over our lives that we seem to lose when we feel sad and depressed. It is always better to read a good book on the sofa in those long winter months rather than continuoulsy check our apps for the most recent updates in sunset and sunrise times (as I sometimes do), hoping that magically the sun will set at 21:30 tomorrow rather than at 16:30, as it currently does in my timezone. The most important thing, however, is to realise that you are not clinically depressed: SAD does affect your mood, but it is easy to remedy it by discussing it with a good mental health professional and developing a plan to overcoming it.

Before we even know it, spring will be on its way, we will frolic again in the springtime meadows, and then summer will bring another psychological challenge: Reverse seasonal affective disorder! For those of you who suffer from that, here is a link to it: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-babble/201501/reverse-seasonal-affective-disorder-sad-in-the-summer

When we move to a new country, be it for work, for a degree, or for love, the initial excitement of starting a new life might soon be replaced with a feeling of loneliness that creeps up on us. Sometimes we are not even aware of it, and sometimes these feelings can turn into a depressive state that is difficult to shake off. In your home country, you might have sought the help of a counsellor or a psychotherapist, but in a new country with a new language, this is not always an option. Expressing your inner thoughts to someone who might not understand your language is not always easy. Thus, what would have been an easy option in your own country turns into another nightmare in the new country. But despair not, help is at hand! I have recently opened the first English-speaking counselling and psychotherapy studio in Innsbruck in the beautiful Tyrol and I hope to hear from you! I have lived abroad for half of my life and have recently returned to my own country. I thus not only have experienced what you are probably going through yourself right now, but I also speak your language.