Navigating Seasonal Sadness: How Sex Therapists Offer Support and Guidance
Embark on a journey of why you should navigate seasonal sadness with a sex therapist through the winter season with this insightful blog. As the winter months descend, many individuals experience a range of emotions, including seasonal affective disorder (SAD) or seasonal sadness. During this time, sex therapists play a crucial role in offering support and guidance to navigate these emotional challenges. This blog delves into the compassionate and constructive methods employed by sex therapists to provide comfort, understanding, and intimacy during this season.
Understanding Seasonal Sadness
First, it is helpful to understand why these mood shifts occur. Seasonal changes are a form of a transition which can be challenging amidst the seasonal holidays and everyday stressors. Shifting into a new season can perhaps be disorienting, as we lose our daylight hours and are left in the dark. Leaving a 9 to 5 for our second shift in the home can leave us feeling drained as our bodies are not used to the lack of warmth and light that typically keep us feeling energized. This seasonal change facilitates alterations within us, which can look like many things: sleeping disturbances, mood decline, social withdrawal, fatigue, appetite adjustments, irritability, loss of interest in normal pleasurable activities, decreased sex drive, and other individual symptoms. These mental and physical changes may lead to seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a type of depression. SAD is common for adults over the age of 20 and occurs more frequently during the seasonal shift into winter. Not only does this weather transformation affect your mental health, but additionally, your sexual health is at risk. Keep following along to learn how these two facets of health are connected.
Impact on Sexual Health
Seasonal sadness might affect one’s libido, intimacy, and overall mood within relationships, creating challenges in emotional and sexual connections. Researchers have found that depressive symptoms and sexual functioning impact one another. “Low mood, anhedonia, fatigue, and impaired social functioning in depression can lead to impairments in sexual functioning. Often, problems in sexual functioning themselves can lead to depressive features” (Thakurdesai, Sawant, 2018). Evidence has proven that the relationship between sexual functioning and depression symptoms are related. Therefore, with your sexual health and mental health both at risk for a dip in functioning during this season, we recommend seeing a sex therapist. A sex therapist is trained in treating and navigating a wide variety of sexual health matters, such as but not limited to: sexual dysfunctions, sexual health education, low sexual desires, intimacy incompatibility, relational struggles related to sex, sexual trauma, sex anxiety, poor body image and more.
Sex Therapists Offer Support and Guidance
What makes a sex therapist’s expertise so valuable is the nonjudgmental, empathetic framework we take to the next level. While the general population of therapists, counselors, social workers, and psychologists are trained to be empathetic and nonjudgmental, sex therapists stand out in that we have training specifically for sexual health. The majority of mental health workers do not have this education, which may leave them open to bias around their clients’ sexuality. The opportunity to explore their own sexuality and their personal beliefs and attitudes on sex is a skill sex therapists obtain, which is crucial when working with all populations. By seeing a therapist who is not trained in sexuality, you are leaving out a huge piece of your own identity; our erotic self is a part of who we are! We do not believe that our erotic self and other parts need to be separated. Sexual health is just as important as mental health, as research has established how intertwined the two are. Since these two pieces of you are connected, we believe seeing a sex therapist this season is just what you need for your seasonal symptoms.
Sex therapists offer support and guidance through a lens in which they have been taught the ins and outs of providing therapy to those who are seeking safety while being their most vulnerable and erotic self. Like other therapists, sex therapists are also taught the compassionate and comforting skills of creating a safe environment for a professional relationship. We take this supportive environment to the next level by having the proper training in working with all of your health needs. This can look like supporting your emotional well-being, such as seasonal sadness and addressing how your sex life or intimacy with a partner(s) may be impacted during the cold months. We recognize how these two aspects of your life are connected, and we will work collaboratively in individual or couples sessions to help you feel supported in combating these upcoming depressive months.
Your seasonal blues and sexual health are not mutually exclusive; let’s work together to navigate the brisk winter through supporting both your emotions and sexuality.
Get all of your mental and sexual health needs met by seeing a sex therapist today!
References
Thakurdesai, A., & Sawant, N. (2018, December). A prospective study on sexual dysfunctions in depressed males and the response to treatment. Indian journal of psychiatry. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6278224/