20 Ways to Beat the Winter Blues: Gentle Support for Women with ADHD in North Carolina

When winter settles in across North Carolina, the drop in temperature can feel like more than just a change in the weather. For many women with ADHD, winter can amplify emotional overwhelm, low motivation, sensory discomfort, and old trauma responses that already make daily life feel heavier.

Maybe it’s the forced time indoors, the extra effort our bodies make just to stay warm, or the shorter days and weaker sunlight. Early winter is buffered by holidays, New Year’s energy, and even Valentine’s Day—but by late winter, the cold snaps and endless gray can wear down even the most resilient nervous systems.

For women with ADHD, this season can intensify:

• Emotional dysregulation

• Rejection sensitivity

• Fatigue and burnout

• Trauma-related stress responses

As a therapist offering EMDR for women with ADHD in North Carolina, I often remind clients that winter blues are not a personal failure—they’re a nervous system response. While EMDR therapy can help address the deeper patterns underneath seasonal distress, small, intentional moments of regulation and connection can make a real difference day to day.

Below are 20 gentle, playful ways to bring warmth, movement, and relief into the last stretch of winter.

20 Ways to Heat Up Your Heart in the Dead of Winter

1. Ground by going outside
Especially if you’re angry at winter, stepping outside can help regulate your nervous system. Let the cold air cool your body—and often, your emotions follow.

2. Have a dance party
Turn on your favorite music, invite friends (or don’t), and move freely. Rhythm and movement are powerful tools for ADHD brains.

3. Gear up and go for it
Bundle up and hike, throw snowballs, or find a playground. Outdoor movement supports emotional regulation and dopamine.

4. Enjoy a hot bubble bath
Salts, bath bombs, exfoliators, a book, and your favorite drink. Warmth helps signal safety to the body—especially important for trauma-sensitive systems.

5. Sip hot drinks mindfully
Tea, coffee, cocoa—slow sipping brings comfort and grounding.

6. Board games
Scrabble, Monopoly, cards, Battleship—structured play offers connection without pressure.

7. Visit the library
Make a cozy day of it. A calm environment can soothe overstimulated ADHD nervous systems.

8. Pick a craft
Drawing, knitting, painting, jewelry-making—creative focus can feel regulating rather than draining.

9. Cozy clothes challenge
Spend five uninterrupted hours in your coziest socks, flannel, or pajamas. Sensory comfort matters.

10. Pictionary or charades
Low-pressure fun that encourages laughter and connection.

11. Movie watch-a-thon
Choose winter-themed or comfort movies and make it an event.

12. Hide and seek (lights off!)
Yes—even for adults. Play engages parts of the brain trauma often shuts down.

13. Body gratitude practice
Thank each body part for what it does for you. This pairs beautifully with EMDR-informed somatic awareness.

14. Build a fort
Create a physical sense of safety and imagination—both powerful for healing.

15. Play telephone
Let the laughter remind you that imperfection is human.

16. Popcorn conversation
Write questions, take turns answering, and deepen connection naturally.

17. Find-it games
Hide an item and use hot/cold clues. Playful focus without pressure.

18. Who’s got the bone?
Simple group games help regulate social nervous systems.

19. Knock it down!
Build a wall of cups and knock it over safely—great for releasing pent-up energy.

20. Rest without guilt
Sometimes beating the winter blues means allowing rest without self-criticism—especially for women with ADHD who are used to pushing through.

A Gentle Closing

Winter blues are real—and for women with ADHD, they’re often layered with trauma, burnout, and nervous system overwhelm. If small coping strategies help, that’s wonderful. And if they don’t feel like enough, you’re not broken.

EMDR therapy for women with ADHD in North Carolina can help address the deeper emotional patterns that resurface during harder seasons, offering relief that goes beyond “just coping.”

Spring will come. Until then, warmth, play, connection, and compassion still exist—right here, right now.