Seasonal Depression Can Happen in Spring — Here’s Why and How to Cope

Seasonal depression, previously known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD), involves symptoms that come and go as the seasons change. The most recent edition of the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5)” officially recognizes this condition as major depressive disorder (MDD) with a seasonal pattern.

Most commonly, symptoms of seasonal depression begin in the fall and winter and improve as spring rolls around, but that’s not always the case.

You might instead notice the reverse: mood changes that begin in spring and persist into summer. Some people refer to this type of depression as “reverse SAD,” in fact.

Since experts have linked the winter type of seasonal depression to lack of sunlight, you might wonder what triggers a low, sad mood in the springtime. After all, the days are lengthening, new growth is blossoming, and there’s plenty of sunshine.

As it turns out, the longer days, warmer weather, and all that greenery in bloom may actually have something to do with spring depression.

Below, we’ll explore the key signs and potential causes of spring depression, plus offer some tips to cope with symptoms and find professional support.

How it feels

Spring depression involves many of the same signs and symptoms as major depression, although symptoms won’t necessarily show up in the exact same way for everyone — just as they won’t with MDD.

As the winter days lengthen and spring approaches, you might notice:

• a general low mood, which might include persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness

• less or no interest in your usual activities

• difficulty finding the motivation for your regular daily routine

• changes in energy, including lethargy or restlessness

• insomnia and other sleep difficulties

• trouble with concentrating or remembering information

• appetite or weight loss

• unusual agitation or irritability

• feelings of anger or aggression

• thoughts of death, dying, or suicide

You might also notice signs of depression brain fog and feel restless and unable to settle to any one activity. You could simply feel sad, low, and hopeless without any clear understanding of why.

Having thoughts of suicide?

Crisis helplines connect you with trained counselors who can offer compassionate support during a time of crisis. Crisis counselors don’t give advice or provide professional mental health treatment, but they can listen to what’s on your mind and help you identify some next steps toward getting care and treatment.

To get free, confidential, 24/7 support:

• Text. Reach the Crisis Text Line by texting “HOME” to 741-741.

• Call. Reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988.

For some people, spring depression can also involve uncharacteristic episodes of aggressive or violent behavior, so you might also notice unusual anger that seems to wash over you without any specific trigger.

Why it happens

Spring depression is less common than winter depression, and experts don’t know for certain exactly what causes it. A few potential theories include:

Increased daylight and warmth

If you don’t handle heat well, warmer days may bring discomfort, especially when they involve more hours of daylight. Extreme brightness and heat could leave you feeling low and unmotivated and factor into increased restlessness and irritability.

The increase in sunlight can also disrupt circadian rhythms and throw off your typical sleep-wake cycle, making it more difficult to get the amount of sleep you need for optimal health and well-being.

To put it another way, bright sunny days can leave your brain on high alert, making it difficult to relax when you need to wind down.

Many people notice changes in their sleep habits as a symptom of depression — but it’s worth keeping in mind that insomnia, a condition where you regularly don’t get enough sleep, can also raise your chancesTrusted Source of developing depression.

Imbalances in brain chemicals

Your brain produces a number of different neurotransmitters, or chemicals messengers, that help regulate mood, emotions, and other important bodily processes.

But having too much, or too little, of them in your system can disrupt typical function and play a part in the development of mood and mental health symptoms.

Experts believe that winter depression relates, in part, to a drop in serotonin — a chemical that’s typically produced after exposure to natural light. An increase in melatonin, another hormone linked to winter depression, can leave you feeling more tired and lethargic than usual.

It’s been suggested that spring depression may follow the reverse pattern:

• The sudden increase in sunlight cues your body to produce less melatonin, so you end up getting less sleep than you need. As noted above, this lack of sleep can contribute to, or worsen, symptoms of depression.

• At the same time, levels of serotonin in your body increase as a natural outcome of longer days and sunnier weather. While too little serotonin is linked to depression, too much could also contributeTrusted Source to mental health concerns, including social anxiety disorder.

If you’re particularly sensitive to these changes, a surplus of serotonin (not to mention the lack of sleep) could potentially contribute to feelings of irritability and restlessness, along with a low mood.

That said, it’s still unclear what actually causes spring depression.

Pollen sensitivity

Do you have seasonal allergies? Beyond making you feel congested, groggy, and flat-out miserable, pollen sensitivity might also contribute to changes in your mood, including feelings of depression.

Research from 2019Trusted Source surveyed 1,306 Old Order Amish adults — a primarily farming population that has a higher exposure to pollen and other seasonal allergens. The results of this study also point to a link between high pollen days and worse mood symptoms among those with symptoms of spring or summer depression.

Other potential risk factors

A few additional factors may raise your chances of experiencing seasonal depression, including:

• Sex. Women tend to experience MDD with a seasonal pattern at higher ratesTrusted Source, but men tend to have more severe symptoms.

• A family history of MDD with a seasonal pattern. Having a close family member, like a parent or sibling, with spring or winter depression can raise your chances of experiencing it yourself.

• A personal history of bipolar disorder. Living with bipolar disorder can increase your sensitivity to circadian rhythm disruptions that happen with seasonal changes. Shifts in your circadian rhythm can also play a partTrusted Source in episodes of mania.

• Changes in your schedule. If you have a job that changes with the seasons and leaves you less (or more) active in the spring and summer months, the resulting lack of structure or added stress can leave you feeling low and contribute to other changes in mood, sleep, and overall emotional health.

• Geographical location. Living in a hotter or more humid climate could play a part in symptoms of spring and summer depression.

How to cope

You don’t have to wait for the cooler months to return to get relief from spring depression. These strategies may help ease symptoms and improve your overall mood:

• Practice good sleep hygiene. Lack of sleep can have a major impact on spring depression symptoms. To improve your sleep, aim to keep your room dark and cool with fans, blackout curtains, and layered, breathable bedding. Making it a habit to get up and go to bed at the same time every day doesn’t hurt, either.

• Keep your cool. While there’s no conclusive evidence that sensitivity to heat contributes to spring depression, feeling uncomfortably hot most of the time likely won’t do much to improve your mood. Cool off by keeping hydrated, turning on fans (or air conditioning, when possible), and dressing in breathable clothing.

• Make time for physical activity. Not only can regular exercise help relieve stress and ease symptoms of depression and anxiety, it can also lead to better sleep. To stay cool during exercise, try swimming, exercising in an air-conditioned facility, or sticking to early morning and evening workouts, if you’re able to.

• Try meditation, journaling, or art. Both meditation and journaling can help you identify and accept difficult or unwanted emotions, including feelings of depression. Art therapy may also make a difference, whether you’re artistically inclined or not.

• Reach out to loved ones. Letting the people in your life know what you’re going through might feel tough at first. It can help to remember that your family and friends care for you and likely want to offer support, even if that just means listening to your feelings or keeping you company when you feel down.

• Stick to a routine. A work or school schedule that changes in the spring can leave you feeling lethargic, unmotivated, and at loose ends. Creating a daily routine that balances chores, goal-directed activities like studying or learning new skills, and enjoyable activities can help daily life feel more structured and satisfying.

• Eat a balanced diet. Lack of appetite is pretty common with spring depression. You may not feel like eating, but not getting the right nutrients can leave you irritable, not to mention affect concentration and productivity. Reach for nourishing, depression-relieving foods, and drink plenty of water when you feel thirsty.

Finding treatment

As with all other types of depression, spring depression may not improve without support from a trained mental health professional. Coping strategies can help, but they won’t always lead to lasting relief.

Reaching out for professional support is always a good idea when:

• feelings of depression and other seasonal mood changes last for longer than 2 weeks

• symptoms begin to affect your daily life and relationships

• you have thoughts of self-harm or suicide

• you have difficulty regulating intense emotions, like anger, worry, and sadness, on your own

• your symptoms get worse over time

A therapist can offer more guidance with tracking patterns in your symptoms and helping you find the most helpful treatment. Treatment typically involves therapy, medication, or a combination of the two.

Therapy

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), an approach often used to treat depression, teaches techniques to help you identify and address unwanted thoughts and behavior patterns.

Techniques used in CBT for seasonal depression (CBT-SAD) might include:

• cognitive restructuring, which involves reframing unhelpful thoughts about the season and related mood symptoms

• behavioral activation, which helps you create a routine of enjoyable activities and positive or rewarding habits

Interpersonal therapy, an approach specifically developed to treat depression, helps you explore issues in your personal and professional life and relationships that could contribute to symptoms of depression.

If spring depression relates to a shifting schedule or seasonal changes in your home life, for example, your therapist might help you identify and practice new strategies to address those concerns and any emotions they bring up.

Medication

If you’d like to try treating seasonal depression with medication, a psychiatrist or other prescribing clinician may prescribe antidepressant medication, such as:

• a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant, such as fluoxetine (Prozac), sertraline (Zoloft), or paroxetine (Paxil)

• extended-release bupropion, which you’ll begin taking in early spring and stop taking once summer ends

The bottom line

Spring depression may not last year-round, but it can still have a lingering impact on your overall health, well-being, and quality of life.

While you can’t stop the seasons from changing, you can take steps to head off spring depression by building a toolbox of helpful coping strategies.

What you eat affects your mood, focus, and overall mental well-being. Fuel your brain with the right foods! #EatWellFeelWell #MindBodyConnection

Your mental health matters, and the weekend is a great time to recharge. Whether it's resting, spending time with loved ones, or doing something that brings you joy—make space for what you need.

What’s one thing you’ll do for yourself this weekend? Drop it in the comments! ⬇️✨

#MentalHealthMatters #FridayVibes #WeekendWellness #SelfCare

16 Must-See Mental Health Documentaries

The global estimation of people with mental health or substance use disorders is around one billion — yes, one billion. These statistics in no way capture the entire picture, though. 

Cultural stigma, lack of access, affordability, and discrimination all play a part in excluding, silencing, or hindering people from reaching or accepting mental health support.

As this issue continues to gain recognition as a crucial aspect of our overall well-being (there’s more mental health good news than ever before!), documentaries have become a powerful visual tool for us to explore the complexities and spectrum of mental health, while also celebrating its breakthroughs. 

Before you add any of these documentaries to your queue, it’s important to note that some cover very triggering topics, like sexual assault, abuse, and suicide. Online resources like Unconsenting Media and DoesTheDogDie help viewers avoid issues they’re not quite ready to explore yet. 

We’ve gathered some of the best documentaries out there that offer a unique and often intimate look into the lives of individuals, families, and organizations working toward breaking existing stigma and misconceptions surrounding mental health.

From the impact of trauma and addiction to the struggles faced by young people, these films not only provide a look into the human experience, but they also serve as an important message of hope and healing for those who may feel alone in their struggles. 

Mental Health Documentaries To Stream Right Now

Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me (2022)

“My Mind & Me” offers an intimate look into the life of Selena Gomez, a singer, actress, and mental health advocate who has struggled with bipolar disorder, anxiety, and depression. The film spans over six years and takes viewers on a journey through Gomez’s ups and downs as she navigates managing her mental health.

The documentary also features interviews with mental health experts, advocates, and Gomez’s friends and family members who have supported her along the way. 

With its message of hope and self-acceptance, “My Mind & Me” aims to promote a greater understanding and awareness of mental health issues while encouraging viewers to seek help and support when needed.

How to watch: Apple TV

‍

The Me You Can’t See (2021)

Co-creators and executive producers Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex, present the multi-part documentary series, “The Me You Can’t See,” which features stories on the current state of mental health and emotional well-being in the greater zeitgeist. 

The series includes candid interviews with mental health advocates, experts, and guests such as Lady Gaga, Glenn Close, and San Antonio Spurs’ DeMar DeRozan, alongside people from around the world living with mental health challenges — including the co-creators themselves. 

This series aims to transcend culture, age, gender, and socioeconomic status to destigmatize a highly misunderstood subject and offer hope to viewers struggling with mental health. 

How to watch: Apple TV

‍

Nadiya Hussain: Anxiety And Me (2021)

You might recognize Nadiya Hussain from “The Great British Baking Show” and her epic 2015 win. However, it’s her mental health advocacy efforts that have us rooting for her. 

In Hussain’s documentary, she helps break down the misconceptions surrounding anxiety disorders and documents her own journey as she undergoes cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) — exploring the root causes of her anxiety and how it has affected her personal and professional life. 

Throughout the documentary, Hussain meets with mental health experts and individuals living with anxiety disorders to learn more about the condition and how to cope. 

The documentary is a powerful reminder that mental health issues can affect anyone, regardless of age, background, or social status, and that seeking help is a sign of strength, not weakness.

How to watch: YouTube

‍

Light In The Darkness – Living Well After Trauma (2019)

Six out of every 100 Americans suffer from PTSD at some point in their lives, and “Light In The Darkness – Living Well After Trauma” aims to give viewers a better grasp of what it’s like to live with this disorder — as well as reasons to hope.

Through intimate interviews and raw footage, the film explores the profound impact of trauma on our mental health and well-being and how people can find healing from it. 

While it centers on stories of hope and resilience, the film also offers valuable information and resources for those struggling with trauma or mental health issues.

How to watch: Tubi | Apple TV

‍

Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness (2022)

“Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness” shines a light on the often-ignored issue of mental illness among young people. The film follows the stories of 20 young Americans as they navigate their way through anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder. 

The film explores the impact of mental illness on young people and their families, as well as the struggles they face in seeking help.

It also highlights the need for increased investment in mental health services and resources to ensure young people receive the care and support they need to lead happy and fulfilling lives.

How to watch: PBS

‍

Lost Angels: Skid Row Is My Home (2010)

“Lost Angels: Skid Row Is My Home” delves into the lives of those living in Los Angeles’ Skid Row. It exposes the dire need for comprehensive mental health and social services to aid individuals grappling with addiction, mental illness, and poverty. The film also focuses on the challenges organizations face in providing care and support.

The documentary offers a rare and intimate glimpse into the lives of people often overlooked and ignored by society. It humanizes the struggles of this population, compelling us to confront our own internal biases and perceptions. 

By highlighting the hardships faced by those living on Skid Row, the documentary aims to foster greater empathy and awareness about the struggles of individuals experiencing mental health issues.

How to watch: Prime Video

‍

Notable Mentions

• Life, Animated (Prime Video)

• My Depression: The Up and Down and Up of It (Tubi)

• Unstuck: An OCD Kids Movie (Vimeo)

• Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind (Prime Video | HBO Max)

• How to Change Your Mind (Netflix)

• Boy Interrupted (Prime Video | HBO Max)

• Thin (Prime Video | HBO Max)

• Wildcat (Prime Video)

• Stutz (Netflix)

• The Anonymous People (Prime Video)

A good night’s sleep boosts mood, reduces stress, and improves focus, helping you feel more balanced and resilient. Prioritize rest for a healthier mind. #SleepWell #MentalHealthMatters #RechargeYourMind

Your mind needs rest just as much as your body. Prioritize your mental health with a few moments of meditation each day. #MindfulMoments #MentalWellness #InnerPeace

The Many Mental Benefits of Decluttering

During the month of February, people are encouraged to declutter their homes and donate unused or unwanted items to charitable organizations. If you need some motivation to make room for the new holiday gifts you received, or to organize your closets, now is the time. You know that sweater in your closet that doesn't look good on you, but you never got around to returning? How about that extra toaster oven you have been storing in your basement for years? Someone out there could be enjoying these items. Donating feels good. As does living in a tidy and organized environment.

Clear Your Home, Clear Your Mind

Clutter creates chaos, which impacts your ability to focus. It also limits your brain's capacity to process information. Clutter is a form of visual distraction, which increases cognitive overload and can reduce working memory. If your space is unorganized and filled with clutter it can be difficult to focus or concentrate. Research has shown that people are less irritable, less distracted, more productive, and better able to process information with an uncluttered and organized work area.

Staying organized can be a challenge for anyone. It can be a daunting task for those with ADHD, brain injury, and/or executive function deficit or disorder. Clearing the clutter and developing systems for keeping certain things like keys, phone, and wallet are essential to managing day-to-day activities and improving time management.

Not only is it hard to physically function in a cluttered space, but clutter bombards the mind with excessive stimuli. Addressing the heaps of paperwork, laundry, and thoughtfully organizing helps to calm the mind.

Improve Mental Health

Several studies show a correlation between disorganization, clutter, and mental health conditions, including, depression, anxiety, and stress. Messy environments can cause frustration, helplessness, and feeling overwhelmed.

Excessive clutter often leads to feelings of shame, hopelessness, and guilt. The feelings can spiral, making it difficult to find the motivation to address the clutter. If someone is already suffering from depression, a cluttered home can worsen that depression. It is often a cycle. The more depressed you get, the harder it is to clean and organize.

Decluttering increases self-worth, creates healthy habits, and boosts productivity. A clean and tidy home can also improve sleep, boost mood, and promote relaxation.

More Energy and More Space

Everything we own and bring into our home takes up some of our time, energy, and space. While some things are worth it, there are usually items that no longer serve us and we could do without. The more things we have, the more things we have to clean, organize and manage. Trying to stay on top of it all in a cluttered home requires more time, energy, and effort.

When our closets and drawers are jammed packed with stuff we don’t use, we spend more time looking for the things we need. How frustrating is it when you know what you are looking for, but you just can’t lay your hands on it? Getting rid of the things we don’t use creates more space and breathing room, allowing us to focus on the important things.

Declutter and Donate—It's a Win-Win!

It seems easy to accumulate all sorts of things we don’t really need, yet difficult to let them then go when they no longer serve us. There are many reasons people hold on to things, from sentimental to monetary value, but at what cost? More often than not, the things we fear getting rid of end up negatively impacting our lives, rather than benefitting them. Another reason we hold on to things that are in good condition, but we know we will never need or use again, is because we don't know what to do with them. The answer is simple: donate. Decluttering not only improves your life, it improves the lives of others in need.

Steps to Declutter

• Start Small: Set small, manageable goals. Tackle one task, one pile, or one room at a time.

• Ask for Help: Enlist the help of a family member, friend, or paid consultant who can help you make decisions. Sometimes getting "permission" from someone else makes it easier to put your items in the donate pile.

• Take a Picture: If you have trouble parting with your children's baby clothes and books or mementos from a vacation, take a picture of them. Giving them away often feels like giving up a piece of our identity or our past, making it difficult to let go. By taking a picture of an item that carries sentimental value, you can still have that connection.

• Decide what you’re going to do with your unwanted items: The goal is to get the items out of your house and into the hands of someone who needs them. Contact local homeless shelters or donation centers to schedule a drop-off or pick-up.

If clutter is overwhelming you or you are experiencing anxiety or depression, either causing clutter or due to out-of-control clutter, a therapist can help. You are not alone. There is help and hope. There is a way.

Making Sleep a Priority for Mental Well-Being

If you’re looking to make a fresh start with new goals for the new year, don’t forget about sleep. While getting enough sleep did not make the top 9 list for American’s mental health-related New Year’s resolutions in a recent APA poll, it may be one of the best things you can do for your mental health and your overall health.

Many Americans don’t get enough sleep or have trouble sleeping. Sleep helps your brain function properly and not getting enough sleep or poor-quality sleep has many potential consequences. In addition to fatigue, decreased energy, and irritability, it can also contribute to problems with focusing and making decisions. Lack of sleep is linked to health concerns, such as heart disease and diabetes, and to worsening mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety.

New research breaks down some of the numbers and identifies some changes in daily habits that could help us get better sleep. Nearly 30% of adults have trouble falling or staying asleep, according to a study reported recently in JAMA Network Open.

The study, involving more than 9,000 adults, also found that

• Three in ten adults had trouble sleeping.

• More than one in four had daytime sleepiness.

• More than 30% had 1 hour or more of sleep debt a week (getting 1 hour less of sleep than their bodies need).

• Almost 10% had 2 hours or more of sleep debt a week.

• Nearly half experienced 1 hour or more of social jet lag, which describes when a person’s biological time, which is determined by the person’s internal body clock, is different than social times, which are required for school or work.

Tips for better sleep:

• Avoid screentime at least one hour before bed.

• Make your bedroom a sleep-friendly space by keeping it cool, dark, and quiet.

• Follow recommended guidelines on proper exercise to improve overall health and your sleep. Aim for at least 20 minutes of exercise a day.

• Increase exposure to bright light upon waking and throughout the afternoon.

• Help regulate your body’s sleep/wake process by eating meals at consistent times during the day and avoiding heavy meals 2-3 hours before bed.

(Adapted from the National Sleep Foundation)

How much sleep we need changes depending on age and varies from person to person. According to the National Sleep Foundation, most adults need about seven to nine hours of restful sleep each night.

The National Sleep Foundation’s 2022 poll looked at how Americans are doing on a number of daytime behaviors that can affect sleep, including exercise, exposure to bright light, late-night screen time and mealtimes. They found that

• More than a third of Americans fall short of CDC’s recommendations for moderate or vigorous activity.

• More than half of Americans engage in screen time within an hour before bed.

• Four in 10 Americans eat meals at inconsistent times, making it more difficult for their bodies to regulate the sleep/wake process.

• Nearly half of Americans say they aren’t exposed to the recommended levels of bright light in the morning and afternoon.

The Foundation notes that making small adjustments to our daily routines can help prioritize sleep for overall health.

Shifting from apology to gratitude is a small change that makes a big impact. It helps replace guilt with confidence, strengthens relationships, and nurtures a healthier mindset. You are not a burden—you are worthy of kindness, including your own. 💙 #GratitudeOverGuilt #MindsetShift

How Small Acts of Kindness Can Help With Anxiety

Depression and anxiety are rampant these days, especially among young people. Those who suffer from either can find their work, physical health, and overall sense of well-being compromised.

Luckily, there are some effective treatments for depression and anxiety, including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). CBT often involves learning how to identify and challenge negative thought patterns and to add more fun, positive activities back into your life, among other techniques. But, while CBT helps many people have less anxiety and depression, it may not have much effect on their sense of social connection—a central part of a happy, healthy life.

Now, a new study suggests there may be a good way to get all those benefits when you’re feeling depressed or anxious: do random acts of kindness.

Five weeks of kindness

In this study, participants with medium levels of depressive or anxiety symptoms (on average) were randomly assigned to do one of three things over the course of five weeks:

• Perform three random acts of kindness on two days of the week. These were defined as “big or small acts that benefit others or make them happy, typically at some cost to yourself in terms of time or resources.” People ended up doing acts of kindness for both people they knew and strangers—like buying coffee for a stranger in line at Starbucks, baking cookies for friends, and offering to shovel snow from a neighbor’s driveway.

• Plan a social activity on two days of the week. These were defined as “big or small activities you intentionally plan with other people for the purpose of enjoyment.”

• Complete a “thoughts record” for at least two days a week. Thoughts records involve using a workbook to identify distressing or distorted thoughts and learn how to challenge those thoughts to make them less problematic (a CBT technique called cognitive reappraisal).

Before the experiment started, every week during, and five weeks after it ended, the participants reported on their depression, anxiety, and stress; their sense of social support; their positive and negative feelings; their satisfaction with life; and their degree of “self-absorption”—meaning, how much they focused on themselves in private and how self-conscious they were about what other people thought of them in public.

Results showed that, after the experiment, all three groups of people were less depressed and anxious, had lower negative feelings, and felt more satisfied with life. But the group that practiced random acts of kindness had greater reductions in depression and anxiety and higher satisfaction with life. And, while acts of kindness and social activities both improved people’s sense of social support, practicing kindness improved it even more, with benefits lasting up to five weeks.

Coauthor Jennifer Cheavens of The Ohio State University says she was surprised by the findings, in some ways.

“We did think that, if there was going to be an advantage of one group over another, it might be the thoughts record group, since that’s such a tried-and-true way of addressing depressive [and anxiety] symptoms,” she says. “But the kindness group did as well or better, and that group also had increases in social connection that didn’t happen in the other two groups.”

How kindness helps us

Why would kind acts help with mental health symptoms? It’s not certain, says Cheavens. But in the study, they did find that being kind to others made people less self-conscious in public settings, which, in turn, was tied to less depression and anxiety.

“When people engaged in doing things for other people, these prosocial behaviors seemed to attenuate that self-focus that we all get sometimes when we’re in social situations,” she says.

Though practicing kindness and doing thoughts records both increased people’s positive feelings over time, doing kind acts had larger benefits early on (which tapered off), while the opposite was true for thoughts records—positive feelings went down at first, then improved over time. That may explain why fewer people dropped out of the kindness activity than the thoughts record, says Cheavens.

“It doesn’t take a lot of time to get the hang of doing something kind for other people, but it takes time to get the hang of thinking about your own thoughts differently and evaluating the evidence for your negative thoughts,” she says.

Still, it seems like it might be hard to convince people who are depressed and anxious to add random acts of kindness to their lives. After all, they are already feeling overwhelmed and may have trouble getting themselves motivated to do more. Cheavens says she wondered the same thing before the experiment happened. But, as it turned out, this wasn’t a problem.

“I was surprised it was not a particularly hard sell. The people in the acts of kindness group had better uptake in some ways than the people in other groups,” she says.

Treating depression and anxiety

Given her findings, Cheavens is interested in seeing whether more kind acts would be even more beneficial. In future studies, she’d like to work with people with more severe depression and anxiety and to see if the type of kind acts or the beneficiaries matter for alleviating symptoms.

Still, it’s important to note that she is not suggesting only prescribing kind acts to people with depression and anxiety—nor is she saying CBT should be abandoned as the preferred treatment for them. A thoughts record is not the same as engaging in CBT with a licensed therapist, and the therapy has a long history of being effective.

But the study does suggest that people in treatment may get some added benefits from doing random acts of kindness. If doing so helps people improve social connections, while aiding with their symptoms, it’s pretty much a win-win to consider kind acts as an add-on to therapy, says Cheavens.

And, for those of us who may suffer from less serious anxiety or depressive thoughts sometimes, it could be a good idea to get out of our own heads and just turn our focus on others. Not only can being kind help your mood, it can make you feel closer and more connected to people—something we could use more of in society, in general.

“The Surgeon General has been talking about the importance of belongingness and socially connecting to other people, and acts of kindness . . . may be a little less vulnerable than other ways we put ourselves out there,” she says. “I know that when I’m feeling a little cranky or burned out, doing things for other people is often a go-to strategy for me.”