Many people find the cold and dark of wintertime in Finland hard to cope with, with some people even developing depressive symptoms such as tiredness, low mood and hopelessness. Some people suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). This is a condition in which people experience severe low mood and tiredness during wintertime. Many people living in Finland during winter get a milder version of this, and this can really impact a person’s well-being and mental health during the dark months. The reason it is so easy to get depression or SAD in Finland during wintertime, is that there is no – literally zero – Vitamin D coming from exposure to the sun for 4 months of the year because there is no UV light in Helsinki from November to February.
Why do we need Vitamin D? Well, the truth is that it is not a true vitamin, but a hormone, and it directly affects serotonin, a neurochemical in the brain that affects your mood. If you are low in Vitamin D, you will be therefore low in serotonin and be more likely to feel depressed.
So, one very simple and cheap solution to avoid depression in winter is to pop some pills – Vitamin D pills – every day from September until May!
You can buy Vitamin D pills in most chemists (apteekki/ apotek) in Finland – the chewable (purutabletti) ones are best for children and adults. While the official recommendation for adults is to take 10 micrograms per day, this simply prevents severe disease such as rickets, and you will actually get most benefit from taking 20 to 100 micrograms a day. Many health professionals in Finland say they in fact take about 50 micrograms a day during the winter season.
What other benefits can you get from taking Vitamin D? Vitamin D3 also helps the immune system to fight viruses, and is essential for calcium absorption and bone growth. It is also vital to many other types of functions in the body, and in fact many countries including Finland supplement food with Vitamin D as a public health practice. In Finland Vitamin D is in dairy and plant-based milks and some fat spreads.
One thing that Vitamin D cannot do is to help with feeling tired in winter – this is usually due to overproduction of melatonin during winter due to a lack of light. You can treat this with a bright light therapy lamp (use it before 9am for maximum benefit, for around 30 minutes). You don’t need to stare at the lamp – it actually works best when it is on the side or above you while you are eating a meal, drinking coffee or looking at your phone. You can buy lamps for 20 Euro – 200 Euro or more from supermarkets and homeware shops in Finland.
Another recommendation is to go outside everyday for a short walk, even if you walk slowly. This can have a huge benefit and is one of the main recommended treatments by psychiatrist Antti Liikkanen for coping with SAD in Finland. Many Finns also have a cultural belief that you must go outside at least once a day in winter to avoid cabin fever. Undoubtedly this helps them to get through the long winter season and everyone living this far north should make this part of their daily routine in winter, even if it is just to take out the trash.
I hope that this article has been helpful for you in understanding how to best cope with winter in Finland. If you feel that you need additional help, see your doctor or contact us to make an appointment with one of our psychologists.
And remember – put Vitamin D pills on your shopping list this month!