Beating the Winter Blues

It’s winter, the weather is awful, it’s dark by teatime and you feel tense, anxious and low. The pounds piled on over Christmas, your energy levels are at zero and you are finding it increasingly difficult to get going in the morning. Then when you do your spirits are low and you find yourself reaching for the chocolate or biscuits to give you a quick boost.

It is as though you are caught in a vicious circle of feeling low, eating the wrong things to make yourself feel better and then putting on weight, which makes you feel even worse. What can be the matter? You could be suffering from the “Winter Blues”, otherwise known as seasonal affective disorder or SAD which can affect people right up until the clocks go forward again at the end of March.

What is SAD?

Sad is a specific form of depression with specific symptoms only experienced in a particular season that affects around 17 per cent of people in the UK. Read more >

Treatment Time

If you have had symptoms of low mood for two to three winters running it’s likely you are a sufferer of SAD. There is lots you can do yourself to minimise the effects of SAD and the winter blues. Read more >

Help Yourself

If you're feeling under the weather and a little down, there are some steps you can take to try to boost your mood. Read more >

Friends and Family

If one of your family or friends is suffering from SAD there are several things you can do. Read more >