Maintaining Mental Health During the Winter Months With Dr. Michele

Live Happy Now

Live Happy LLC

Mental Health, Health & Fitness, Health & Fitness:mental Health

4.7 • 522 Ratings

🗓️ 4 February 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The cold, gray days of winter can have a direct effect on our mental health, so this week, host Paula Felps sits down with clinical psychologist Dr. Michele Leno to learn more about how we can make the next few weeks a little brighter — regardless of what’s going on outside our window. Michele offers insight into how seasonal changes affect our brains and what we can do for ourselves and those around us. In this episode, you’ll learn: What causes physiological changes during winter months and how that affects our brain’s neurotransmitters. How these changes may affect children and older adults – and what to look for. What changes to look for in yourself and those around you — and when to get help.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for joining us for episode 505 of Live Happy Now.
0:08.7	Winter can be a challenging time with its cold, gray days, and that can darken our moods.
0:14.0	So this week's guest is here to talk us through it.
0:17.3	I'm your host, Paula Phelps, and this week I'm joined by Dr. Michelle Lino, a clinical psychologist and host of the TV talk show Mind Matters with Dr. Michelle.
0:26.5	She's here to talk about why seasonal changes can affect us physiologically and how that affects our brain's neurotransmitters.
0:33.8	She also looks at what behavioral changes to look for in children and older adults,
0:38.2	and what warning signs indicate you may need to look for some outside help.
0:42.2	Let's have a listen.
0:44.0	Dr. Michelle, thank you for joining me on Live Happy Now.
0:47.3	Thanks for having me, Paula.
0:49.0	This is a perfect time to get you on here.
0:51.1	You know, we've made it through the holidays.
0:53.2	So now we're settling into
0:54.3	that stretch of winter that can be pretty challenging for a lot of people. So to kind of understand
1:00.3	where we're coming from, can you explain to us how those reduced daylight hours can start to
1:05.8	affect our mental health? Absolutely. So a lot of people are familiar with seasonal effect of disorder by now.
1:13.7	And it really is a shift in mood in response to the fall and winter, a lack of sunlight, natural
1:22.5	sunlight and daylight. And it can really make us feel anxious. It can make us feel depressed. And a lot of times
1:29.2	people will say, well, you know that this is going to happen. Like we get the seasons changing all the
1:34.1	time. Like I live in Michigan. So I should be used to it, right? Wrong. When it first starts to
1:39.3	happen, I'm okay. It's like a time to just calm down and not deal with the hustle and bustle of things.
1:45.3	But then all of a sudden I find myself like bored and just feeling like down and
	...

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