Fall Survival Guide
In which I share my Canva- and SAD-fighting skills
Summer went by too quickly, as it often does. Refusing to acknowledge the dropping temperatures, I find myself running out of the house without socks or shoes to take out the garbage or recycle, only to wade through cold puddles, bits of dirt sloshing up between my toes. Despite the fact that I will have to peel off the sap-stained helicopter seeds that have glued themselves to the soles of my feet, I know I will still choose to go barefoot the next time.
I feel a kinship to the pear-hued leaves on our Autumn Blaze maple: left behind, surprised by the vivid, almost phosphorescent, scarlet leaves already letting go, sailing down into the yard.1
Our tree looks awkward this year, like a lanky tween whose ankles are sticking out of her too-short-as-of-today jeans.
This year’s vacillation between below-freezing temperatures and warm sunny days has caused the foliage in our area to be a little confused. I’ve noticed, though, that it’s led to a more protracted season of fall colors in our area: we’ve enjoyed weeks of scarlet, crimson, red-orange, ochre, mustard, and chartreuse, all set against the somber evergreens.
Like this year’s deciduous trees, I’m slow to transition. I’ve lived in the Pacific Northwest now for 13 years, and I’m still shocked by how refrigerated the air feels in October. On the first brisk evening of the season, I am immediately transported to Christmas in the Park in San Jose, and yet it’s still months away from actual Christmas. You can take the girl out of California…
Temperature is one thing, and precipitation is another. But what gets me is the gloom. I started experiencing Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) every winter subsequent to my first pregnancy. (I suspect I had it before then, but was able to cope when I didn’t have the caretaking responsibilities of little ones.)
It descended on me every January without fail, and wouldn’t let up until April or May. Taking care of myself and my family would feel impossible, and I couldn’t get myself interested in things I normally enjoy. Depression is an insidious ailment: it can trick me into thinking it’s my fault for feeling discouraged, that I’m just not trying hard enough. The worst part is the lack of hope that it will ever get better.
This most recent winter was the first time in ten years I got through the season unscathed. After hitting rock-bottom the winter prior, I had made an appointment with my naturopath. She started by increasing my dose of Zoloft, which I had been taking on and off for post-partum depression after each of my three pregnancies. She also agreed with my suspicions about ADHD and prescribed Strattera (a non-stimulant ADHD medication) and referred me to a psychiatrist for an ADHD evaluation.
My psychiatrist confirmed my ADHD diagnosis in May of 2022. We played around with different meds, and settled back on Strattera and Zoloft, mostly because I was in too fragile a state by that point to experiment too much. The dismal weather had been so unrelenting, I was still feeling crummy in June. We wouldn’t be able to fully shake the depression until the end of summer.
So, instead of being able to taper off the antidepressants during summer and ramp them up again in fall, we kept everything steady and even added a third medication to stay ahead of the next cycle of potential depression. I started Wellbutrin (a depression med used off-label for ADHD), which helped me with motivation and task completion. Three feels like a lot of medications, but they seem to be working, so I try to not to complain.
For this upcoming winter season, I feel a little behind on recalibrating my meds. (Remember: I am the bosc pear leaf wearing no socks.) I tapered down the antidepressants just a skosh this summer, because it was making me feel emotionally blunted. We’re trying more Wellbutrin to balance that out, so it won’t be the same exact cocktail as last year and I’m a little nervous.
Anyway, I’m not a doctor, so I’m not here just to talk about prescription medicines. The whole point of this post is to say LOOK WHAT I MADE!
As mentioned in my September review, one of my goals was to explore and play around with Canva. So I made this little graphic of natural remedies I use as supplements to my SAD care.
If you struggle with SAD, know that you are not alone. It’s one of the hardest things I’ve every walked through in my life, and I hope you get the help and support you need.
Disclaimers: The information, including but not limited to, text, graphics, and images are for informational purposes only. No material in this publication is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
This page contains affiliate links. If you choose to make a purchase after clicking a link, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support!
1. Zen
My naturopath recommended this combination of GABA and L-Theanine when I first suspected I might have ADHD in 2019. I can take it year-round but focus on regularly incorporating it in the fall and winter to help with mood support and staying calm. (It is not cheap!) It helps with reactivity and I find it helps me not get as quickly frustrated by my kids.
It takes about an hour to kick in, so I try to take my first one as soon as I wake up. Because they are expensive, sometimes I only take one all day. If I do take a second one, I do that around midday. To stretch the budget a little, I recently started using this cheaper L-theanine I found on Amazon (without GABA) in the afternoons.
2. Happy Light
I like this one because: (a) you can choose warm/cool light, (b) it has a timer setting, so I can set it to automatically turn off after an hour. I usually do my morning pages and check my planner while it’s running. Watching a show or reading is also a good way to pass the time while using a happy light. I notice a significant difference in energy levels when I use this.
3. Non-blue-light glasses
Our optometrist started offering free blue-light blocking filters on prescription lenses, which I used for a couple of years. Then it dawned on me that it might be filtering the kind of rays I need for the happy light to be effective. I switched to over-the-counter readers until my insurance allowed me to get a new pair of lenses without the filter.
4. Vitamin D drops
I learned about these drops from my friend Bethany, who told me her body seems to be more responsive to drops more than to capsules. Maybe it’s because it doesn’t have any coating, or because it’s getting metabolized together with food when you put the drops in food, but it seems to make a difference for me, too. I take between 10-20 drops in my morning bowl of oatmeal; more in the winter, less in the summer.
5. GF Quick-cooking Rolled Oats
These quick oats have the speed of instant oats, without any of its mushy texture. They also have the flavor and nubbiness of steel-cut oats, without the time it takes to cook. So it’s basically a unicorn. To make it, I add a healthy pinch of salt, some boiling water, an obscene amount of cinnamon, and the aforementioned D drops. If I want some sweetness, I chop a date into it.
6. Over-the-ear Headphones
In college, I discovered that if I kept earbuds in, I could focus better, even if they weren’t plugged into my computer or mp3 player. Something about the sensory reminder of my body’s boundaries helped me stay on track. Now, as a parent, I continue to use headphones (with and without sound) to focus.
Nice fluffy over-the-ear ones add some noise dampening which I really like.2 I can hear my precious children, but I don’t have to hear every echo of every conversation Snowball is having with Enchanted and Percy.
My ears get oversaturated quickly when we’re spending less of our days under the open sky. Inside, everyone’s voices echo, reverberating between the ceiling and the hardwood floor. Headphones reduce the extraneous noise and help me feel less on-edge. If I need extra sound dampening, I use these earplugs.
What’s on your list?
I will eventually succumb to the seasonal shift and resign myself to socks (yes, and boots, Aly). But even as I refuse to admit that my barefoot days are numbered, I’m adding in my other fall self-care strategies now, in an attempt to stay ahead of the curve.
Do you struggle with SAD? I’d love to hear your story and what you implement during fall and winter to help you cope. Please share below in the comments!
There’s a Dad joke in here somewhere, right, like how the green leaves don’t want to let go because they haven’t yet got their choro-PHYLL of summer?
I don’t use the actual noise-cancelling feature, because it makes me feel dizzy when it’s on. Also, it only cancels white noise, which isn’t actually the kind of noise that’s annoying ;)
Love this lovely. And yes lots of room for punditree, and you don’t even need to go out on a limb! Also I need to finish Wintering.
Love the intro and photos! I really need a happy light and love how you pair it with those morning tasks in your routine. I can see that helping me as well.