Autumn Depression: A Dull Time - Is It Time For A Psychologist? - Self-development

Autumn has come. She plays with the colors of leaves, invigorates with the morning chill, refreshes with rains, treats with a generous harvest. But this pleases not everyone. The dampness, cold and rapidly approaching darkness are fully felt by the inhabitants of the cities, the grumbling of households and colleagues also does not raise their spirits.

Cliché in gloss

Particularly staunch comrades see the lengthened evenings as an opportunity, well, let's say, to read. Making themselves comfortable in an armchair, they pick up a glossy magazine, and from there - "Autumn Depression" for the entire spread. With eloquent illustrations - sour and sullen faces. This will definitely not add joy to the readers. Moreover, with the standard listing of the so-called symptoms of autumn depression, everyone will easily find it in themselves. Most often, you can stumble upon descriptions of the following signs:

• have difficulty waking up in the morning,
• it is often cold and you want to wrap yourself in a warm blanket,
• don't want to chat with friends
• in the evenings you feel sad and longing,
• dampness and rain irritate you,
• I don’t want to do anything, and you are lethargic …

Let's define the concept

What kind of beast is this autumn depression and does it really exist? First, you need to define the concept of depression, and then glue the seasonal variety to it. Depression (from Lat. Depressio - suppression) is an affective state characterized by a negative emotional background, changes in the motivational sphere, cognitive perceptions and general passivity of behavior.

Subjectively, a person experiences, first of all, difficult, painful emotions and experiences - depression, melancholy, despair. His drives, motives, volitional activity are sharply reduced

Feelings of guilt for past events and a sense of helplessness in the face of life's difficulties are combined with a sense of hopelessness. Self-esteem is drastically reduced. The perception of time, which passes painfully long, is changed. Behavior is characterized by slowness, lack of initiative, fatigue; all this leads to a sharp drop in productivity. In severe cases, suicide attempts are possible.

Imposed diagnosis

The time of year alone cannot cause a normal person to lose self-esteem and despair over the rain. Autumn can aggravate the condition of a person who was previously in the above-described state, caused by some other purely personal events in life. We will not consider this from a clinical point of view.

Let's return to the reader sitting in a comfortable chair. The person understands that the mood, alas, is not joyful, lethargy is present, and one does not want to do anything. And then he is offered a very good excuse for such a state: "You have an autumn depression." “Wow, it means that,” the comrade thinks and convinces himself, ramming the cliché into himself. The client is ready.

Why work hard and search for the exact meaning of a word in professional dictionaries and compare it with your emotional state, why analyze and reflect on the reasons for your sadness and lethargy ?! There is a submitted excuse: "autumn depression". From self-persuasion, with the active filing of the media, a person can really aggravate his condition up to a clinical one.

Seasonal part-time jobs

This is very convenient for psychologists and psychotherapists (may my colleagues forgive me): I broke my depression by seasons - and is provided with work all year round. Autumn is a good time for melancholy and sadness, then winter with its long vacations. Christmas and New Year are "depressed" from the need to make a huge number of congratulations to relatives, friends and colleagues, to waste on cooking / decoration; long vacations in themselves provide for lethargy and doing nothing - which means, exactly "depression". And also the way out of the holidays, summing up the results of the last year, disappointment from the unfinished business! And then - spring, that is, an aggravation. It was dark for a long time, now the light hurts the eyes, the smells of awakening nature hit the nose - "depression". For the summer, it would be possible not to invent anything, the psychologists themselves could rest. But resort romances are also a topic, also bread.

Of course, I'm being ironic. But I would like, first of all, in seasonal conditions to reveal the internal resources of a person. And here the help of psychologists is invaluable: to show a person who is held hostage by stereotypes the true state of affairs, to give him his own ability to overcome and rejoice in his hands!

Cooking an umbrella in summer

Let's replace the cliché "autumn depression" with a more appropriate name for the autumn emotional state: "sad."

Well, now let's put the puzzle together. So, it seems like we just recently ran in T-shirts, shorts and summer dresses, and suddenly (as always, unexpectedly!), We have to put on windbreakers and sweaters. And then still get scarves and hats, warm jackets, gloves, umbrellas … All this adds nervousness and fatigue - walking in all this is simply physically harder.

We bring in autumn at summer turns. And she, insidious, also lulls our vigilance with Indian summer and sunny days. But we can prepare for the "boring season" in advance! For this, a few rules come in handy:

• 1. Identify your emotional state as accurately as possible. What is driving down the turnover? Longing for a past summer? Frustrated that your vacation didn't go as planned? Annoyance about the piling up of pending cases? Need to change clothes, increase their number? Dislike for dampness?

  And immediately answer yourself to these questions with the addition of your arguments. For example: all year long dreamed of a long vacation at sea, but had to shorten the stay to visit your parents? So, next summer, write down a mandatory visit to them. Need to get hats, scarves, jackets? In August, calmly and with inspiration, think over your autumn wardrobe, take it closer to the front shelves and hangers.

• 2. Be clear about autumn as a natural phenomenon and its accompanying signs. Are the evenings noticeably longer and does it depress you? Find a plus in this too. Think of something special for yourself. For example, become a researcher of words and their meanings. Find the definition of the words "despondency", "oppression", "sadness", "longing". I’m sure you don’t want to apply them to yourself later.
• 3. Just get ready for each season. Well, it's not for nothing that in ancient times, our wise ancestors came up with the proverb "Prepare the sleigh in the summer, and the cart in the winter." And then you will begin to notice all the beauty of nature at this time! Bright yellow, red, orange leaves, the mystery of the fog, the mystery of twilight.

And you always have a choice of how to call your condition - "autumn depression" or a transition to a bright, beautiful, rich autumn.

References:

Shapar V. Dictionary of a practical psychologist. M.: Torsing, 2004.

Photo: © Wavebreak Media / Photobank Lori