How Do I Lose the Shame Over My Addiction?
November 28, 2024
How Do I Lose the Shame Over My Addiction? Today, addiction affects a significant portion of the population. In fact,
If you’re in recovery, it’s important to manage your health and your mental health so you feel good enough to stay sober. For most of us, that means eating well, getting enough sleep, exercising regularly, hanging out with friends and having fun, and investing time into personal and home hygiene. But, what happens when outside factors start to affect your mental health? S.A.D or seasonal affective disorder affects about 3% of the U.S. population, ranging from about 1.8% in Florida to almost 10% in Alaska. It also means you’ll feel tired, depressed, and uninterested in anything for months out of the year. That depression can kickstart major depression and relapse.
So, how do you manage the winter blues when you’re in recovery? Can you reduce the effects of S.A.D. and stay sober? The good news is, yes you can. The bad news is, it does mean putting effort into managing your seasonal depression symptoms so you can stay sober.
Let’s take a look!
Getting Enough Light
Most seasonal affective disorder is primarily caused by a reduction in light exposure. It’s not uncommon for light during the day to go from about 14 hours to about 8 or less hours. That can be a big shock to your system. If you work during the day, chances are very high that you’ll also spend all of your daylight hours indoors. That’s bad for you.
For this reason, light therapy is the most common first line of treatment for wintertime blues. Here, you can take multiple steps:
If you live in an area with a late sunrise, try to make sure you get off work or take time outside during lunch so you can get daily sun. You’ll also want to invest in a lamp if you normally have less than about 3 hours of sunlight per day where you can be outside or near a window. And, if you work in an office without a window, you can try talking to your boss about moving your space closer to windows or getting a daylight lamp that can help you at work as well.
Vitamin D deficiency is not seasonal affective disorder. However, it’s caused by the same issues. In addition, symptoms can overlap a great deal. Therefore, it’s a good idea to start taking vitamin D supplements. Here you can talk to your doctor. However, it’s perfectly safe to start taking vitamin D supplements on your own. Because you can’t overdose on vitamin D, you don’t have to worry about taking too much so long as you’re not taking a multivitamin.
If you’re feeling lethargic it’s also always worthwhile to go to your doctor to talk about getting a blood test. If you have a vitamin D deficiency, you can likely get stronger supplements and your insurance will help pay for them. That’s also important, considering many people in recovery struggle with nutritional deficiencies including Vitamin D, Vitamin A, and others.
Chances are, you’re already exercising as part of your normal recovery routine. However, when winter starts to set in, it’s more important than ever. Exercise gets you outside, it gets you moving, and it helps you absorb and process vitamin D more easily. Physical exercise is actually considered one of the best ways to regulate mood when you have seasonal affective disorder. That’s especially true of aerobic exercise, because it increases oxygen consumption which then boosts mood and reduces SAD symptoms.
Here, you can also combine things by making sure you’re getting exercise outdoors. For example, cycling in the morning or going for a run. Half an hour of exercise every morning or most mornings means you’ll get early morning sunlight and increased activity and oxygen consumption, which should help you to feel better.
Here, you’ll want to keep in mind not to overdo things. Exercising yourself into exhaustion isn’t going to help you feel better. Instead, focus on short aerobic exercise that can improve how your body uses energy, so you can better regulate for the rest of the day. Plus, exercise can help you to improve serotonin and dopamine regulation, which helps you stay sober in other ways as well.
Eating healthy and balanced meals is an important part of substance abuse treatment. That’s so much the case that many rehab centers now include nutrition therapy as a complementary therapy. It can also help you to feel better during winter. Getting enough micro and macro nutrients means you’ll have what your body needs to feel as good as possible. Often, that means following the guidelines of something like MyPlate.gov and focusing on making sure about 80% of your meals qualify as “healthy” per those guidelines.
Eventually, S.A.D. is a medical condition. You can get medication like serotonin reuptake inhibitors to help you manage symptoms. You can also talk to your doctor about any worries about seasonal affective disorder impacting your recovery. If your doctor wants to try medication, you’ll also get one that doesn’t interfere with your recovery. Most modern anti-depressants only affect how serotonin is reabsorbed in the brain, meaning you don’t get any effects that could lead to addiction.
The winter blues or seasonal affective disorder affects about 3 in 100 people every year. The less sunny your winters, the higher that percentage is likely to be. Still, you can suffer from SAD anywhere and that means you’ll have to manage symptoms if you want to avoid getting depressed and relapsing. The good news is that we know how SAD works, what to do about it, and how to treat it with medication if light therapy and exercise don’t work. Make sure you talk to your doctor upfront so they know how you’re progressing, so they can track your progress with lights and exercise, and so they can get you medication quickly when and if you need it. Plus, talking to your doctor means you might have to pay less out of pocket, because seasonal affective disorder should be covered by your insurance.
How Do I Lose the Shame Over My Addiction? Today, addiction affects a significant portion of the population. In fact,
How to Beat Those Wintertime Blues and Stay Sober? If you’re in recovery, it’s important to manage your health and
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