The holidays are over, the days are getting short, shorter, it's cold outside,
not the best combo.
Today we have got Gabrielle B Blakley with us to
talk about kind of the Blues post holiday season.
It's super common.
I think there's an actual name for it. Right.
Yep. Seasonal affective disorder or sad. Which is kind of ironic.
Yeah.
Yeah. Ok.
Yeah.
Um, but yes, it's kind of,
it's when your body reacts and responds to those shorter days,
you know, the holidays being over, you're not really looking forward to anything,
um, as much and then
it's just the inability of seeing the sun.
The lack of sun can be really, really makes a lot of sense. Ok.
So if somebody's going, this feels familiar,
what are some of maybe the most common symptoms here?
So, increased depression and anxiety, you're isolating more,
you're less motivated to engage in activities that you enjoy,
um, less social things like that.
Um And then some of the more intense symptoms are increased substance use.
Um, whether that's, you know, drugs, alcohol, what does that look like for you?
Um And then
the scarier part too is, you know, thought thoughts of suicidality or self harm.
Um and, or harming others? Sure.
And what is the first step? What do, what do you advise for people?
The first step that I advise is definitely trying
to get into some therapy of some sort,
whether that's individual group therapy, reaching out to friends and family,
if that's something you feel comfortable
with and just starting that conversation.
Um and that self awareness piece of, you know,
this is past me just being able to be like, all right, come on,
you got this by yourself up by the bootstraps because that's not always a thing.
How do you differentiate the two?
Because I can imagine some people are thinking I'll just push through it.
I'm just like down, you know, but like once I get back into my routine, it'll be fine.
So something
that I always tell people to look for is a pattern.
So is this not the first year that you've experienced?
This is this, you know, ok, I felt this way last year
and I'm feeling it again. So, you know, if it's reoccurring
and then also I think about the holidays and how for some people,
it brought a lot of joy for some people, expectations were not met.
And so is it getting past the point of, you know,
that family member was really difficult to deal with, but I can
into my day to day, are you ruminating and kind of spiraling?
Got it, you know, I think a lot of people also, when they hear therapy, they're like,
yeah, I wanna do it.
I don't know where to turn to make that happen. Absolutely.
So, that's a great question. I think part of it, it's a good Google search.
There's so many places to get involved.
You know, I think of, you know,
saunder mind or better help or psychology today
there's so many people on their therapy,
um, sites to start with
and you know,
your symptoms are more intense, maybe you're looking at
hospitals and group therapy and I need more support. So what does that look like?
Um And so it can be as simple as a Google search of like, hey,
I need help and obviously if you're that crisis situation, the
um 988 hotline, which is super important.
Yes. Um So they just
recently kind of are rolling that out as a new suicide hotline all across the world.
So
it's phenomenal. We also have the Colorado Crisis line as well.
24 7.
I think it's really important what you said about just Googling because
it's not like you have to have like the first match,
be like this epic like relationship with the therapist.
It's ok if it doesn't work out,
I have
options.
I tell my patients that therapists are like trying on pairs of shoes,
they don't fit everyone.
And when you move on to the next,
we're not offended because I'd rather you have the best fit for yourself than,
you know, feel like you're stuck with someone that's not meeting your needs.
But also if you've just started that conversation,
maybe that first therapist can help you
figure out what is gonna be the right thing for
you.
And a good therapist will help you kind of dig into that and determine, ok,
what type of therapy do you need?
Are we
simple talk therapy? Do we need something more intense?
And so they can help guide you because
the mental health system can be really daunting
and so kind of dipping your toe in finding the
right person to guide you through can be helpful.
Well,
thank you so much for coming by and chatting about what
I think is resonating with a lot of people this morning.
We appreciate it.