Seasonal Depression - Axis Integrated Mental Health

5 Best Winter Hikes for Mental Health in Boulder, Colorado

General Mental Wellness, Seasonal DepressionBy Axis Integrated Mental Health October 26, 2026

The advice to “get outside” is easy to give and hard to take in December, when the sun sets by 4:30, and the couch is right there. But Boulder has a particular advantage most winter cities don’t: south-facing trails that catch sun all afternoon, and many of them are a short drive from our Louisville…

8 Journal Prompts for Holiday Stress

General Mental Wellness, Seasonal DepressionBy Axis Integrated Mental Health October 23, 2026

Most holiday advice tells you what to do. Journaling asks you what you want, which is a different question and often a harder one. By the first week of December, many people are running on a list of obligations they never chose, and they haven’t had ten quiet minutes to notice. These eight prompts come…

10 Rage-inducing Holiday Triggers (and How to Reframe Them)

General Mental Wellness, Seasonal DepressionBy Axis Integrated Mental Health October 19, 2026

Somewhere between the second scroll and the third cup of coffee, the holidays stop being something you do and start being something you are graded on. The table is not styled. The lights are not synced. The cookies came from a box. None of this would bother you in March, but in December it lands…

Grief During the Holidays: What to Expect and How to Cope

Seasonal DepressionBy Axis Integrated Mental Health October 15, 2026

There is a particular kind of quiet at a holiday table when a chair is empty. It can arrive the first year or the tenth. It can be set off by a recipe, a song in a grocery store, or nothing you can name. And it tends to show up at exactly the moment everyone…

Why Do Holidays Affect Women More?

Depression in Women, Seasonal DepressionBy Axis Integrated Mental Health September 22, 2026

If you know which cousin is vegetarian, which gift still needs wrapping, and what time the airport shuttle leaves, you already know the answer to this question. The holidays do not land on everyone equally. In our clinics, the weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s bring a wave of women who are less sad than…

Still Depressed on Antidepressants in Winter: Why the Medication May Be Doing Less than it Should

Seasonal DepressionBy Axis Integrated Mental Health September 18, 2026

Taking an antidepressant every day, doing everything right, and still feeling low as the days get shorter is one of the most common situations we see in January. It is also one of the most discouraging, because it can feel like the last option has already been used. It has not. This post explains why…

Is it Seasonal Depression or Just Winter? The Signs That Show Up Before the Mood Does

Seasonal DepressionBy Axis Integrated Mental Health September 14, 2026

Most people expect seasonal depression to announce itself as sadness. It usually does not start that way. For many people, the first changes are in sleep, appetite, and energy, and those changes can begin weeks before mood drops. This post lists those early signs in plain language, explains when seasonal depression tends to start and…

A Winter Home Checklist for Seasonal Depression 9 Things to Set Up Before The Days Get Short

Seasonal DepressionBy Axis Integrated Mental Health September 6, 2026

October is the right month to prepare for winter, because in January the energy to prepare is exactly what is missing. Small changes made now, while the days are still long enough to notice them, are easier to keep than changes attempted in the middle of the hardest weeks. One thing to say clearly before…

When Seasonal Depression Keeps Coming Back: Treatment Options Beyond Light Therapy and Antidepressants

Seasonal DepressionBy Axis Integrated Mental Health August 19, 2026

Light therapy and antidepressants help many people with seasonal depression. This post is for the people they have not helped enough. If the winter pattern has returned two, three, or five years in a row despite a lamp, therapy, or medication, the question is not whether you tried hard enough. The question is what else…

Seasonal Depression in Colorado: Why 300 Days of Sun Does Not Protect You

Seasonal DepressionBy Axis Integrated Mental Health August 12, 2026

Colorado is one of the sunniest states in the country. Every fall, people here still notice the same slump: more sleep, less energy, more irritability, and a mood that sinks as the days get shorter. Many of them assume it cannot be seasonal depression, because seasonal depression is supposed to be a problem for cloudy…

Feeling Numb Instead of Sad? What Emotional Blunting on Antidepressants Means

Seasonal DepressionBy Axis Integrated Mental Health August 3, 2026

Some people start an antidepressant and, after a few weeks, notice the sadness is gone. Then they notice that other things are gone too. Good news does not land. Bad news does not either. Music, food, and people they love feel muted. They are not sad anymore, and they are not much of anything else.…