Caroline Cavanagh, a military wife from Winterslow, is an award-winning therapist who specialises in helping people to cope with the impact of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) – a recognised condition which causes a dip in mood and increased anxiety – associated with the reduction of daylight hours.
She explained that the ‘autumn blues’ are a natural feeling “that you can’t fight, it’s neurological,” and at this time of year she feels it is important to “help people to deal with this feeling.”
She said: “The clocks go back on Sunday and that can cause people to suffer from SAD, the lack of daylight hours has a noticeable impact on their mood.”
READ MORE: Centenarian shares secret to long and happy life as she celebrates turning 101
Caroline Cavanagh (Image: Barbara Leatham Photography)
To combat this, Caroline is running a free 10-day programme to “help people adjust” to daylight saving time, providing “top tips” to help individuals deal with low moods and anxiety.
She said: “One of the things I suggest is to create a playlist of tunes you might associate with good moments, for example a school disco or a wedding, this is proven to instantly improve morale.
“Give it a listen whenever you’re feeling down, it’s more effective than a glass of wine,” she joked.
Caroline, an anxiety specialist, is running a free 10 day programme to share the tips and techniques she has gathered from working with more than 800 people to support them in the coming weeks.
This will become available on Sunday, October 27, to reflect the first day of daylight saving time.
The programme, known as ‘Autumn Blues: How to stop your mood falling like the leaves’, shares 10 “easy-to-use” techniques to help use the mind differently.
“We cannot change the seasonal changes but we can build a mental resilience to cope better with the dark mornings and evenings,” she added.
Caroline explained that commonly acknowledged impacts of reducing daylight hours include changes in sleep on sleep patterns – poor sleep is a major contributor to anxiety, stress and depression.
As well as this, increased isolation through less social interaction contributes to depression, as does a reduction in physical activity which leads to decreases in both physical and mental health.
The 10 day programme begins on Sunday, October 27 and is free to join.
Attendees will learn 10 easily implementable tips that they can use to support greater mental health and also have access to Caroline herself to ask any specific questions about their personal mental health issues.
She said: “They will walk away with a tool kit they can use now, and at any future times when they feel their mood falling faster than the Autumn leaves.”
Readers who would like to find out more can visit: https://www.carolinecavanagh.co.uk/mood-boosting-tips-for-the-autumn-blues/