Every autumn, as the days shorten, many people notice the same pattern: less energy, low mood, a greater need for sleep and a pull to withdraw. When this repeats year after year at the same season, we often call it seasonal depression.
Reduced natural light affects your body clock and mood. It isn't laziness or weakness of character; it's a real, seasonally recurring difficulty that can be treated.
What helps is to build a structure early that protects your mood through the hard months: routine, light exposure, movement and connection, together with therapeutic work on the thoughts and feelings that intensify at this time. We get ahead of it, rather than waiting it out.
Related service: Seasonal depression