You can use a variety of interior design techniques to give you the home environment that’s just right for you. For people with seasonal affective disorder, that means adding more light and spaciousness to banish the wintertime blues. Here are four great ways to lighten your mood through smart choices in home décor and how therapy can help.
1. Choose the Right Colors
If you have seasonal affective disorder, you tend to have symptoms of depression all winter long. The last thing you need is a stark, cold interior filled with grays, blues, and other cool colors. Choose warm colors to contrast with the gray and white scenes outside your window. Warm colors include colors in the red-yellow-orange range.
2. Use Lighting and Mirrors
The winter’s lack of light is perhaps the most significant factor behind seasonal affective disorder. It’s so important that doctors very often prescribe light therapy for patients with SAD. You can boost the level of light in your home by using the right lighting techniques.
Some options include: using track lighting, adding more lamps, using brighter, warmer-colored bulbs, and adding mirrors and other reflective surfaces. Remember this: you need to light the whole space, not just the middle of the room or specific use areas. Use natural light by opening your curtains during the day. At night, keep your room bright with ample lighting from lamps and light fixtures.
3. Add Some Greenery
Researchers have discovered that when people are around plants, they feel happier. People with SAD have even more important reasons to look forward to spring than others do. Adding potted plants to your home décor can create a warm-weather look to your home environment.
Choose plants that can thrive in lower levels of natural light, so that they can look healthy and beautiful during the dark winter months. Green plants clean and humidify the air and add natural energy to your surroundings. At the same time, they make you feel like spring is already here.
4. Include Something Unique
When you decorate your home to alleviate symptoms of depression associated with SAD, you make a lot of practical decisions. Now, consider making one home décor decision that’s just for fun. Choose a unique piece of furniture to express your individuality. You’ll know you’ve found the right piece if you smile whenever you see it.
Therapy for Seasonal Affective Disorder
Seasonal affective disorder is a serious condition. So, while certain interior design choices can improve your mood, it’s also important to deal with SAD more directly. A counselor can help you find even more ways to overcome winter depression.
A therapist can teach you how to deal with those negative thoughts that only seem to come up during the cold winter months. They can provide support for you when you need it most. Help is as close as your internet-connected device when you connect with a counselor. Between the counseling you receive and the home décor changes you make, this winter may prove to be your best one yet.
