01/12/2026
If January hits and your mood tanks, let’s not immediately blame “winter blues.”
Sometimes it is Seasonal Affective Disorder.
Sometimes it’s clinical depression that finally has less sunlight to hide behind.
Sometimes it’s perimenopause, quietly messing with estrogen, serotonin, and dopamine.
And sometimes it’s cortisol running the show because your nervous system has been living in fight-or-flight for way too long.
Here’s the part no one says out loud 👇
Mood changes aren’t a personality flaw. They’re often biochemistry.
Estrogen affects serotonin.
Progesterone affects GABA (your calming neurotransmitter).
Cortisol hijacks sleep, blood sugar, focus, and motivation.
Low vitamin D, iron, thyroid shifts, insulin resistance: all of it can stack the deck against your brain.
So when you tell yourself, “I’m just tired” but your brain feels flat, anxious, foggy, or not like you… that’s not laziness. That’s a signal.
And slapping a generic SSRI, a light box, or “try yoga” on top of it without asking why isn’t personalized care, it’s guesswork.
Your mood isn’t random.
Your symptoms aren’t in your head.
And treatment should never be one-size-fits-all.
The right approach looks at hormones, stress response, sleep, nutrient status, metabolic health, and yes: mental health too. Because brains don’t exist in isolation from bodies (shocking, I know).
If January feels heavier than it should, don’t minimize it.
Get curious. Get data. Get support.
You don’t need to white-knuckle your way through winter.
And you definitely don’t need to gaslight yourself into thinking this is “just how it is.”
