Casa Serena is a premier women’s drug and alcohol rehab in Santa Monica that can offer depression treatment for those in need. Contact us to learn more about our women’s mental health treatment center.

The Impact of Depression On Couples

Without learning coping strategies for couples with depression or getting professional depression couples therapy, relationships can face serious strain because of depression symptoms.

Communication Issues

Firstly, they start to develop communication issues within the relationship.

Emotional Distance

When one partner becomes depressed, they might be wholly engrossed in that depression and not realize that they are emotionally distancing themselves from their loved one.

The other partner can start to feel unsupported, as their issues or stresses or needs are completely ignored.

Intimacy Distance

It’s not uncommon for there to be reduced physical intimacy of all forms, from a simple hug or kiss good morning to sex.

When someone with depression pulls away, they can cause changes in hormonal balances, resulting in higher stress levels that exacerbate depression symptoms and frustration in both partners.

Useful Coping Strategies for Couples with Depression

Finding coping strategies can help couples learn to manage the symptoms of depression and not let them be a detriment to the relationship.

Open Communication

Open communication is the first coping strategy for couples with depression. As communication breaks down in a relationship, it can cause compounding issues for mental health and intimacy, but finding ways to open up about depression is essential.

This is also a highly personalized coping strategy. What works for one couple might not work for another:

• You might want your partner to listen to you explain how you are feeling when you are depressed and then offer support by leaving you alone to watch your favorite show but checking in every hour or so

Offering Emotional Support

Emotional support is an integral form of coping with depression. Much like communication, this will be personalized to your relationship, and you’ll need to do a little trial and error to figure out what you like most:

• You might have problems expressing the impact your depression is having one day, so you’ll need your partner to go through a list of suggested activities to help take your mind off things until you find the one that fits best that day

Supporting Mental and Physical Health

Supporting mental health can involve participating in couples depression therapy. Supporting physical health can include taking measures as a couple to control how you eat, sleep, and exercise. It might also involve offsetting social isolation that can exacerbate depression symptoms.

• You and your partner might do something physically everyday, whether that is light stretching before bed, going for a walk up and down your street, or participating in a community yoga class

All of this is going to look different depending on your circumstances, personality, and the type of relationship you have. As a person struggling with depression, you might express to your partner that what you need most from them is to always push you into physical activity when your depression symptoms are high, even if, at that moment, you say you don’t want to or you push back.

The fastest way to determine what personal adaptations work best for coping strategies for couples with depression is to participate in some form of couples therapy where a qualified professional can help you make those determinations.

Finding Professional Treatment for Couples with Depression

In some cases, the coping strategies for couples with depression fall short, and you might need professional help. With professional treatment for couples with depression, you can work with qualified therapists who can review your individual circumstances and offer practical strategies that are a better fit for your relationship.

What works well for one couple might not work well for another, and generic coping strategies for couples with depression could be a great place to start, but you might need an extra boost from a therapist.

Mental Health Treatment Programs

At Casa Serena, you can benefit from depression couples therapy that takes place in a beautiful, idyllic location conducive to relaxation and open communication. Our facility specializes in several forms of evidence-based holistic practice and talk therapy. When you reach out, we can help you find the level of care and program that works best for your mental health treatment. That may involve starting with a personal mental health treatment plan using an outpatient program that incorporates couples therapy as one of several services.

Overall, coping strategies for couples with depression can provide a great place to start when it comes to managing the impact that depression has on a relationship. When one partner struggles with mental health disorders, it can affect communication, responsibilities, emotional connection, and intimacy. But with the right level of depression couples therapy, you can learn how to manage the symptoms without letting them harm the relationship.

The post Coping Strategies for Couples With Depression appeared first on Casa Serena | Women's Treatment Center.

Casa Serena Treatment is a premier women’s drug and alcohol rehab in Santa Barbara, offering addiction and dual diagnosis treatment for women.

How Can Winter Impact Mental Health?

Winter directly impacts how much sunlight is available throughout the day. Reduced sunlight in the winter can cause a decrease in Serotonin. 

Serotonin is the chemical in your brain responsible for maintaining mood. With decreased levels of Serotonin, you are more likely to struggle with seasonal affective disorder and symptoms of depression. 

Seasonal affective disorder, SAD, is a type of depression that begins and ends around the same time each year, spanning the winter months and leaving you with reduced energy and moodiness. Some signs include:

• Having low energy from the end of fall to the beginning of spring, with feelings of sluggishness most days
• Losing any interest in activities you once enjoyed
• Having sleep problems like oversleeping or not sleeping well
• Irritability
• Anxiety
• Experiencing difficulty concentrating
• Feeling sad most of the day, almost every day during the winter months
• Experiencing a change in appetite, craving high carbohydrate foods in particular

Tips For Improving Mental Well-Being in the Winter

Recent studies have found that people tend to have five percent more Serotonin in the summer compared to winter. It’s this five percent reduction that leads to seasonal affective disorder. Thankfully there are tips you can apply for cold weather mental health improvement.

Sunlight

You should get as much sun as possible during the winter. This means opening up the windows to let the sunlight in or stepping outside. Sunlight helps brighten up any room, so you will feel more energized throughout the day. It might be extremely cold and snowy outside, but open windows and sun, even filtered through cloud cover or snowfall, can boost natural serotonin levels.

Don’t be afraid to bundle up, step outside for five or ten minutes, and let the sunshine on your face.

Tip: You can always buy artificial light boxes to help, but natural sunlight, even under cloud cover, is the best way to deal with mental health in winter.

Exercise

It’s common to reduce exercise levels when the weather is cold, especially if you like to exercise outdoors. But a lack of exercise can exacerbate symptoms of seasonal affective disorder. Exercise helps to naturally boost many positive chemicals like Serotonin, so find a way to exercise in your home or go to a gym regularly during the winter weather.

Sleep

Sleep is essential to keeping your circadian rhythm and natural hormone production at the right levels. So make sure you maintain a proper sleep schedule during the winter with the same bedtime and early morning alarms.

Casa Serena Treatment Offers Women’s Treatment in Santa Barbara

Seasonal affective disorder should not be disregarded as a seasonal issue you have to tackle on your own. Women’s mental health treatment programs can help individuals learn coping mechanisms and life skills that can help promote general well-being in the winter months.

When you are still struggling to deal with mental health in the winter, Casa Serena offers mental health treatment. At Casa Serena, we provide gender-specific, women-only levels of care. You can participate in our residential program, taking yourself away from your colder climates and coming to Santa Barbara for a beachfront treatment with additional sunlight. If you live nearby, you can participate in our outpatient programs. 

Both of these levels of care are offered just minutes from the beach with a range of therapies, including mental wellness programs, cognitive behavioral therapy, career counseling, and trauma treatment. We can customize your treatment based on any other underlying mental health disorders you might have or co-occurring substance abuse disorders. 

Call us today to learn more about our women-only therapies and how we can help you deal with winter blues.

The post How to Deal With Mental Health in the Winter appeared first on Casa Serena | Women's Treatment Center.