How to get rid of the autumn blues? Melancholy is melancholy, but laughter is on schedule!

What is the autumn blues and its causes?

What influences our mood, well-being and motivation? Why do we dislike it so much when summer ends and have a hard time experiencing the cold season? To answer all these questions, let's figure out what the autumn blues are .

Blues is a mental condition that is accompanied by feelings of anxiety, sadness, despondency, irritability and other negative emotions. But in essence, the autumn blues are a natural reaction to a change in biorhythm.

reason for the autumn blues . A number of factors that influence its appearance include:

Melatonin . From a scientific point of view, the causes of autumn depression are that the body begins to secrete more of a hormone called melatonin or the sleep hormone. It is produced when it is dark outside, calling the body to sleep. With the onset of autumn, the days shorten, and accordingly the production of melatonin increases. Its excess causes the autumn blues.
Exacerbation of chronic diseases . Another reason for the blues in the fall is the exacerbation of chronic diseases. Since immunity decreases due to cold weather, colds may also appear, which do not have the best effect on well-being and mood.
Excessive loads . After summer holidays and bright weekends, it can be difficult to get into the mood for work. But it is in the fall that you need to start studying, active work and more. There is a lot of hassle that causes stress and excessive tension.
Plans . Those who are used to planning their lives cannot say goodbye to the feeling of dissatisfaction. Didn't have time to relax, visit a new country or read a hundred books over the summer? All of this can affect your mood and leave you feeling frustrated.
Lack of serotonin . It is the deficiency of serotonin or the hormone of happiness that causes autumn blues in people. If in summer life is full of bright events and memories, then with the onset of the cold season it can be difficult to get enough of it. By the way, the lack of sunlight plays an important role here.

Did you know that autumn depression often appears in people who suffer from low self-esteem, suspiciousness, impressionable and pedantic individuals? In addition, blues are more common in women than in men. It is also often found among schoolchildren who have poor academic performance.

Plan your weekend

After a busy summer, it is difficult to switch to a monotonous daily routine. In order not to fall into the trap of routine everyday life, try to come up with new entertainment for every Saturday and Sunday. Please be careful and try to have less contact with other people. So, we do not advise you to take unnecessary risks and go to the movies, while renting a house on the lake outside the city or go-karting one-on-one with your other half will benefit you. It’s better to spend your vacation money on a weekend like this than to spend a month in the south and then return home and start moping.

Symptoms and signs of autumn blues

How to recognize autumn depression and what symptoms are associated with it? As we said, the autumn blues are more typical for people who are prone to stress and isolation. But how to recognize the first symptoms of depression in the fall? Let's study in more detail.

Autumn blues symptoms:

bad mood or frequent changes, melancholy, despondency, tearfulness;
apathy and reluctance to do anything;
lack of interest in things that previously brought pleasure;
reluctance to communicate with loved ones, friends, and make new acquaintances;
it is difficult to concentrate on work and do it well;
irritability;
feeling unwell during the day, lethargy and drowsiness;
poor sleep, lack of sleep;
dissatisfaction with oneself and others, decreased self-esteem, excessive criticism of oneself;
exacerbation of chronic diseases;
anxiety and excessive worry.

The presence of all these symptoms indicates that you have succumbed to general despondency and are in the grip of the autumn blues.

What about the food?

With the arrival of cold weather, our diet naturally changes. The choice of seasonal vegetables and fruits is reduced, food becomes more calorie and energy dense. However, the basic rules of nutrition for maintaining or correcting a healthy weight remain the same:

do not starve, eat at least 3 times during the day;
consume enough animal protein - at least 1 gram per kilogram of weight;
do not exclude fats, including animal fats; their total amount in the diet should be from 0.8 to 1 gram per kilogram of weight. Enrich your diet with Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and limit Omega-6 (sunflower, soybean, corn oils) read more here;
have a fairly hearty breakfast - combine high-quality protein, animal and vegetable fats, non-starchy vegetables in your morning meal;
lunch is the time for hot soup, a piece of meat (beef, chicken, rabbit, turkey) combined with fresh or cooked vegetables, possibly cereals or legumes with a glycemic index of no more than 50;
Dinner should not be the highest calorie meal of the day. Fish, seafood, poultry, meat are good for it, and as a side dish any fresh, cooked or fermented vegetables seasoned with olive or camelina oil.

You can read more about nutrition for weight loss and its subsequent maintenance in the “Nothing Extra” guide, here is the link.

If you have difficulty controlling the amount of sweets in your diet, autumn is a testing time for you. As a rule, increased cravings for sweets during this period are explained by a lack of serotonin, the internal hormone of joy, which we have already discussed. So our hand reaches out to a sweet bun or chocolate candy, in which we see an opportunity to improve our mood.

To solve this problem, try including some hard cheese in your diet.

Why can cheese help control the need for sweets in the fall?

The fact is that cheese is very rich in tryptophan, an amino acid without which the synthesis of serotonin is impossible. We unconsciously try to compensate for its lack with sweets. It is important to use aged varieties of cheese, but you should not abuse them; allowing yourself a modest cheese plate a couple of times a week is enough.

In addition to cheese, sources of tryptophan can be: almonds, cashews, peanuts, rabbit and turkey meat. Include these foods in your diet periodically to cope with the autumn blues, mood swings and cravings for sweets.

And the last piece of advice on nutrition in the autumn is to use warming spices when preparing food and drinks - cardamom, cloves, black pepper, ginger - they all contribute to some acceleration of metabolic processes, which, of course, is important for maintaining weight or losing it.

How to get rid of the autumn blues?

How to overcome the autumn blues and stay in a good mood, no matter what? There is no universal advice here. But the first thing you need to understand is that with the arrival of autumn, life goes on. There is no point in suffering because the weather is not so sunny and night comes much earlier. Just accept it as it is and don't stress yourself out.

How to cope with the autumn blues?

Play sports . Physical activity saves you in any life situation. The production of the happiness hormone during exercise will give you energy, and a beautiful and toned body will improve your mood in any weather!
Eat right . Another universal tip that will help you stay in a good mood. By eating right, you take care of not only your health, but also your mood. By getting the necessary elements and vitamins with food, you feel great throughout the day.
Take care of yourself . Don't forget that you are the best and most valuable thing you have. Remember to take care of yourself and enjoy yourself.
Decorate the house . You can't even imagine how much this improves your mood. After all, it’s more pleasant to return after a hard day at work to a cozy room, beautifully decorated with garlands, with a warm blanket and a stack of favorite books on the shelf. We have already described how to make your home more comfortable in our previous article.
Change your wardrobe . Have you noticed that during the cold season everyone prefers dull black and gray tones in clothes? Don't give in to this trend and brighten up your wardrobe with bright colors. Bright orange sweaters, a beige coat, instead of a black jacket - all this will delight you every day.
Communicate more. Autumn is not a reason to forget about meeting friends and spending time with loved ones. So what if now you can’t sit on a cozy summer terrace or walk all night long? But you can spend a soulful evening at home, by candlelight and good music.
Read more . The most comfortable time for reading books is autumn. Wrap yourself up in a warm blanket, grab a big cup of tea or cocoa and immerse yourself in the world of your favorite characters or learn something new from self-development books. By the way, don't forget about our list of books you can't put down.
Watch movies and TV series . Another way to have a pleasant and sometimes very useful time. On our website you will find films that everyone should watch and TV series to cure the autumn blues.
Keep a diary . A great way to overcome the autumn blues is to start a diary in which you can write down all your plans, goals, achievements, mood and more. Clear planning will help you get as many things done as possible and forget about your bad mood. By the way, along with this point, we advise you to build the right daily routine.
Get creative . When, if not now, can you devote a lot of time to your favorite activity? Knit a scarf for the winter, cross-stitch a picture, make decorations with your own hands - remember what your soul is passionate about!
Drink herbal teas . They are natural sedatives that will not harm you. Try a decoction based on chamomile, thyme, lemon balm or lavender.
Take a walk in the fresh air . Following our previous recommendations, don't forget about walking outside. Take your family and friends with you and enjoy their wonderful company.

If all the above tips do not help, and the blues have lasted for more than a few weeks, we suggest you seek help. A specialist will help you overcome a difficult period in your life and determine what you are really suffering from: the autumn blues or depression.

Anti-stress procedures

Shouldn't we go to the bathhouse?

If there are no health contraindications, then this is an excellent and affordable spa treatment for the fall. A hot steam room, combined with water treatments, self-massage of problem areas, tea from healthy herbs - perfectly speeds up metabolism and improves mood.

Do not forget about the safety rules and the need to replenish your water balance during bath procedures, and then maximum positive emotions are guaranteed.

If a bathhouse is not available to you, you can create a spa resort right in your bathroom.

I highly recommend baths with magnesium flakes.

Such a simple procedure will give you comfort, peace and tranquility, just like after a high-quality relaxing massage session. The bonus of magnesium baths will be excellent sleep, elastic and tightened skin, reduced muscle pain, reduced levels of tension and stress.

How to distinguish the autumn blues from depression?

How do you understand that the autumn blues hide behind a protracted depression and why you shouldn’t confuse these concepts? Depression is a mental disorder that requires treatment and does not go away on its own. Blues are a seasonal phenomenon that can be quickly resolved with the above methods.

If you notice that the autumn blues last more than 2-3 weeks, your sleep is disrupted and you don’t feel cheerful, you should consider consulting a doctor. Depression is also indicated by problems with weight - sudden weight loss or gain, sleep - insomnia or sleeping for more than 10 hours and a constant feeling of despondency. If you have such signs, you should not let the situation take its course. Take care of yourself and your health!

Deal with problems

“I have a continuous black streak in my life,” you complain to a friend after a car splashed you from a puddle on the way, and then accidentally broke your nail. Is it worth putting a cross on yourself because of such troubles? Remember that the scale of a person is determined by the seriousness of the problems that can make her angry. Calm down and think about how you can avoid trouble. Maybe everything is not so bad - the driver of the car increased the speed, and then regretted his rash action, and the nail broke only because it was time for you to renew your manicure - right?

Stop seeing only negative moments: look how bright the sun is shining, rejoice at a compliment from a friend and an invitation to a date from a loved one.

There are “hooks” in your every day that you can grab onto and lift your spirits.

Focus on what really matters

Much has already been said about the dangers of multitasking, but I want to add one more interesting fact: when multitasking, we lose the ability to distinguish between what is important to us and what is not. We are so overloaded with things to do that we simply don’t have time to stop and think about what each of these things means to us. Overload is partly what causes the autumn blues.

Stop and think. What is most important to you in terms of your health? In a relationship? In your career? Now think about how much time and energy you spend on this? What can you do to shift your time and energy from “not important” to “important”?

I recommend reading: “Essentialism” by Greg McKeon

Focus on the present

Eastern practitioners pay a lot of attention to living in the present moment, but this is quite difficult for a Western person who is used to making plans and striving for a happy future. We think through everything six months in advance, we make every effort to get to where, in our opinion, we will be rich and happy, and that’s good. The bad thing is that we rarely get to this place and get so used to the eternal struggle that we cannot do otherwise.

If you feel sad or worried, if you are fed up or backed into a corner, then take a deep breath. Exhale. And then three more inhalations and exhalations. Look around. Pay attention to what and who surrounds you, look at yourself, your body, your clothes. Focus on what you are doing in the present moment, whether you are driving a car, listening to a colleague, or washing the dishes. Let go of thoughts about the future, at least for a little while, and allow yourself to be in the present. The present is a static state where there is no place for worries and fears, it is just you and the world around you.

I recommend reading: “Mindfulness” by Mark Williams and Danny Penman