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How to beat low mood this winter: 2 strategies and top-tips from a Clinical Psychologist

Writer's picture: Dr Alastair PipkinDr Alastair Pipkin
Dec 26, 20246 min read

Updated: Dec 30, 2024

With colder weather and darker days, many of us may experience more low mood than usual. Low mood may be a normal part of the human experience, but there are times where it can last longer and start to impact us more than usual.


Here we are delving into two top strategies to help to combat persistent low mood and depression, with two top-tips to make them more effective from a Clinical Psychologist with significant experience of treating low mood and depression.


Let's dive into two strategies for beating low mood.



1)      Behavioural activation

Low mood can come with horrible physical symptoms, such as fatigue, disrupted sleep and loss of motivation. This makes engaging in our usual routine and activities much harder, known as ‘behavioural deactivation’. This, unfortunately, fuels low mood, as it gives us less opportunity to engage in activities which boost our mood, and stops us from overcoming the loss of motivation and energy.


The antidote to this is called ‘behavioural activation’: in essence, gradually re-introducing activities to ensure we have a balance of positive activities. A helpful acronym to remember the types of activities we should have a balance of is ACCE:

 

Achievement – things we do for a sense of accomplishment. E.g. hobbies like crafts or sport, work, helping others, sense of progress or purpose.

Chores – things have to do. E.g. cleaning, cooking.

Connection – things that give us connection with ourselves or others. E.g. socialising, valued activities like volunteering, crafts, sports.

Enjoyment – things we do just for fun. E.g. play.




 

The idea is to re-introduce one activity at a time, and assess whether it does improve our mood. Do not expect quick, immediate results, but do expect that increasing balance and activity levels will have a positive impact on mood.

 

Here are the eight steps of behavioural activation:

 

1)     Get a weekly schedule or planner (see ours which includes prompt reflective questions in our workbook here!)

2)     Map out what the current level of activity is

3)     Identify the balance of ACCE’s

4)     Begin to rate mood after each activity (0-10)

5)     Identify one activity from ACCE that is missing and it in to the next day, schedule it

6)     Rate mood before the activity and after

7)     Review and reflect

8)     Look to add another one, repeat

 

Our top-tip:

Be scientific and gather data
This isn't just about doing more, it is also about gathering evidence about whether activities do boost your mood, as negative thinking almost certainly says they won't. It is quite common for people with persistent low mood to think they constantly have low mood and that they cannot and will not enjoy anything. Don't forget to rate mood before and after an activity to test out this belief. Try to see it all as an experiment; if you try walking and it doesn’t improve your mood, try tweaking the experiment, like a scientist would with their ingredients. Try a different time and day; try a different route; try adding headphones with music; or try a different activity altogether. Negative thinking will suck you into perceiving failure and futility - a scientific approach won't.

 

2)      Reducing rumination

Low mood not only saps our physical energy to keep up with positive activities, but it can also distort our thinking into being more negatively focused. Beyond this, one of the main things that allows low mood and depression to keep its grip is rumination, which is when we dwell on negative thoughts. These thoughts may be about past or current events. Think of the ruminating mind becoming like a negative washing machine, going over and over negative thoughts on a cycle, all the while strengthening low mood and reinforcing the negative thoughts.



When left unnoticed, rumination is fuel to the fire of low mood and depression. The answer is therefore intuitive: we need to notice rumination when it is happening and actively interrupt it. Though it is rarely that easy. I would argue that to make this easier, we need to know why we do it. What is the purpose of spending time dwelling on negative thoughts? What might we be trying to achieve?


Here are some of the possible reasons why people ruminate:

·       To try to solve a problem. With negative thinking we perceive problems, and with rumination we try to solve them by thinking our way out of it. Rumination unfortunately isn't problem solving, which is more focused on action planning, so we just end up feeling worse. Some common thoughts are "if I can just work this out then it won't feel so bad"; "if I can just understand it then maybe I'll feel better".


·       To try to get past negative thoughts. Rumination can be an attempt to change how we think or to come up with new insights, but it just ends up dwelling on the issue at hand and making us feel worse. The answer isn't often in our heads when we are ruminating.


·       To try to wrestle with an underlying belief or perceived 'truth'. Similarly, rumination can be an attempt to re-live current or past experiences where there is anger or discontentment about how it went, in order to overcome an underlying negative belief about it. For example, where disagreements or interpersonal experiences left one feeling not good enough, belittled or some negative idea about ourselves, rumination may be a way of angrily battling with the outcome in our minds. Again this leaves us feeling worse as it often doesn't get us anywhere besides feeling the emotions.

 

With that in mind, here is our 7-step plan to tackle rumination:

 

1)     Begin to catch rumination as soon as possible - with practice, the time spent ruminating will reduce

2)     Ask self: what is this for? What am I trying to achieve? Identify its purpose, as you may be better off fulfilling this elsewhere

3)     Use grounding techniques, such as: 54321 (see further details of this in our workbook)

4)     Distract self by focusing on/doing something else. Even getting up and moving can be helpful, or purposefully thinking about/focusing on something else around you

5)     ‘Zoom out’ and identify any thinking patterns: e.g. over-generalising ‘everything is negative’, personalising ‘this is about me’. These are worth challenging

6)     Identify any emotions and reflect on what you need

7)     Reflect on what you have learned about rumination

 

And here is our top-tip to power up reducing rumination:

Don't neglect your needs once you know why you're ruminating
Once you figure out why you ruminate, try to find other ways to meet that need. If you're trying to problem solve in your head but getting stuck ruminating, why not engage in some active, constructive problem solving? Make an action plan. If you're trying to combat a negative thought or belief, why not take the thought to court? If you're trying to overcome an experience of anger, why not do something to get it out? You may like to write down what has made you angry, or problem solve, or seek to repair a ruptured relationship. These will all reduce the need for rumination.

 

If you have found our tips on addressing low mood and depression helpful, we have an exclusive loyalty discount on our new, 3-hour Unlocking Low Mood in 3 Steps educational course: take 50% off with the code BLOGDISC here. Simply enter the code at check-out for your discount.

If you aren’t ready to commit to our course, then our workbook which covers all three steps and includes 9 top-tips from a therapist to power up your low mood interventions is currently discounted here.




Our summary:

-          Depression and low mood rob us of the energy to keep up with routine and positive activities, but keeping active can really help. Use ACCE to identify one activity, schedule it and monitor how it impacts your mood. Keep building in one activity at a time.

-          Depression and low mood lead us to ruminate, or dwell on negative thoughts. Ask yourself what this is trying to achieve, and begin to practice noticing and interrupting it when it happens. It is worth trying to problem solve to meet the need rumination is trying to achieve in other ways.

-          You can use the discount code BLOGDISC10 to get £10 off our online course on Unlocking Low Mood in 3 Steps here

-          You can download our workbook which delves in deeper to understanding and beating low mood for a discounted price here


If you feel you are struggling with low mood, support is available, please see some links below to reach out for help:

The NHS provides free, accessible talking therapies for depression, for which you can self-refer here:

 

You can also speak to your GP and see further details of depression via the NHS website here:

 

If you feel you need urgent support, you can call 111, or 999 in an immediate emergency if you feel unable to keep yourself safe or feel at risk from others. You should also attend A&E if you feel unable to keep yourself safe or feel at risk from others. Further details on local crisis support is available here:

 

You can also talk to the Samaritans by calling 116 123 or by visiting their website:

 

There are national charities with local branches across the country and online resources who can also provide support:

 

 

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