Here where I live we get lots of snow,cold wind,and darkness during the winter months and it is quite easy to become depressed from the lack of sunlight.

I actually purchased a UV light in order to shine on myself while I'm at work and I always take tons of vitamin E and D in order to get the natural amount we normally get during the summer and spring months. It's essential but you might not even know that you need it unless you've been told by your doctor or nutritionist.

I always tan myself during the summer months but I never really realized a connection between the two until I talked to my nutritionist,oh and as you get older its a great idea to get one,and she told me all about it.

Btw crying and asking your friends for help is a good way to reach out of you're feeling down about yourself. I had a friend take his own life 3 years ago and I wish every single day he would have reached out for help from all of his friends who loved him. Please,reach out if you ever need help.

Since I've been on meds to help with my depression I've been much better than I normally would've been this winter but I find that reaching out to others helps a lot and I usually like to stay in and do thing that I enjoy to keep me entertained like playing games or watching YouTube.

Yeah, I'd imagine a lot of people seem to get depressed a lot more during the Winter time then any other time of the year and it might be a sudden change in the atmosphere or the cold starts to get to you and make you feel like the tough times will last forever.

I usually deal with this by having a heater in my room and when I'm starting to feel tired or depressed I usually change it from the fan option to the heating option, and back if I'm feeling the same with the heater being on. It's helped honestly a lot with my mental health during this time of year because I can easily get overwhelmed by both ends of the spectrum in terms of temperature.

I'm not sure if some people are like me though it really does help to know what your body feels comfortable in during the vast extremes of each side because I feel like I'd be much more depressed and not want to do much if I didn't have this.

I won't lie I dont exactly get this type of depression, mine is more of a all year around depression. I won't lie either that until about a month ago, I had no idea there was such a thing where people get more depressed over the winter months. However, it does make sense if someone has low vitamin D to see a drop due to less sunlight, so honestly I feel like the best bet is to take vitamin D to try and find that boost you're looking for.

Meanwhile for me personally, since I feel it year round, I just end up taking the max dose of prozac xD

Well, personally I don't mind the winter, so it doesn't really hit me with depression. But I guess the ways to avoid it is to try and find something to keep you busy. I think more so with myself. It's losing people around the holidays, or bad things happening and so on. My grandmother (from my dad's side) was diagnosed with pancreatic and stomach cancer on Christmas many years ago. During Christmas time, I wasn't a fan. She was pretty much told she had less then a month to live, luckily she lived longer then that, a few months. I hated Christmas that year, I hated it the next year. To this day I don't get really into the Christmas spirit. I celebrate it sure, and try to enjoy it the best I can, but at the same time. It's always on the back of my mind. Plus my job around Christmas time can be just ridiculously busy, and that runs me into the ground. Not only that.

Winter isn’t as bad here in the area but one thing that keeps me busy during this time is find an indoor hobby. I used to do some craft work during cold winter days inside the garage because out of boredom, need something for the house or just want to see if I can create said object. Time flies and it’s something that I enjoy

I usually avoid depression in the winter by snuggling up with somebody and staying warm. Drink hot cocoa, watch TV or anime, and just in general enjoy the excuse to be near others.

While seasonal depression can be a b****, it's not so difficult for me to avoid it.

In high school, I was getting depressed during the winter. It helped me a lot when I reached out to others about it. It got to the point where it was difficult for me to want to talk to people, but I thankfully overcame that.

Another thing that helped me a lot was prayer and having other people pray for me since I'm a Christian. I spent some good time in silence to try to feel more hopeful and peaceful, which could help people whether they're a Christian or not.