People with SAD see their depression recur around the same time every year, usually during a particular season. Most people begin experiencing symptoms in the fall and they continue through the winter, but some people may experience symptoms during spring and summer months. Because most people experience symptoms during the winter, SAD is more common near the poles because of long winter nights. It's much less common in areas with moderate climates. Interestingly, the symptoms people experience can differ depending on when they begin experiencing SAD.
Winter symptoms include:
- Depression
- Hopelessness
- Anxiety
- Loss of energy
- Heavy, "leaden" feeling in the arms or legs
- Social withdrawal
- Oversleeping
- Loss of interest in activities you once enjoyed
- Appetite changes, especially a craving for foods high in carbohydrates
- Weight gain
- Difficulty concentrating
Whereas summer symptoms include:
- Anxiety
- Trouble sleeping
- Irritability
- Agitation
- Weight loss
- Poor appetite
- Increased sex drive
While there's no specific cause for SAD, there do seem to be a few things that come into play. Among these are circadian rhythm, serotonin levels, and melatonin levels. It's thought that the lower levels of sunlight in the winter may disrupt the body's "biological clock", causing a person's body to become conflicted as to whether it should be asleep or awake. This, in turn, can trigger feelings of depression. Additionally, the reduced sunlight may also cause a drop in serotonin levels that can cause depression. Finally, seasonal changes may disrupt the body's balance of melatonin, which can affect mood and sleep patterns.
Luckily, SAD has a reasonably quick and inexpensive treatment called light therapy. People undergoing light therapy sit or work a few feet away from a box (basically a lamp) that gives off a bright light, mimicking outdoor light. Despite not having a lot of research behind it, light therapy seems to be a pretty effective way of treating people with SAD. For those who don't get any benefit from light therapy, there's always medication and psychotherapy. Unfortunately, there aren't a whole lot of videos on YouTube featuring people sitting next to lamps for extended periods of time, but I did find this video from DailyWebTV where some lady interviews some other lady about light therapy:
At 3:28, they make a great point about not using just any old lamp for light therapy. If you have SAD, it's best to consult a doctor before buying a light therapy box to make sure you're not just getting a piece of glowing junk.
I think that about does it. As always, I hope you've learned something, because I'd be really sad if you didn't. Oh, and before I go, isn't SAD the most appropriate acronym for anything ever?
Y'all come back now, y'hear?
woah awesome post, there was a lot of things in this post that I didn't know until you mentioned them here. like I didn't' know the different symptoms for SAD during particular seasons, and I didn't know SAD is more common near the poles because of long winter nights. That's really interesting. I really got to understand the meaning of SAD besides what the book mentions, great post and yes you are right SAD is the most appropriate acronym ever lol awesome post
ReplyDeleteI know people generally get sad around the holidays anyways. The amount of sunlight available during the fall/winter is much less compared to the spring/summer. It is interesting how sunlight or light therapy can alieviate the blues. I understand SAD to much more common in areas closer to the poles. Many of these places have periods of 24 hour sunlight as well as periods of 24 sunless days. What was very curious to me is how in the spring/summer seasons SAD can affect some individuals. I would like to learn more on the subject. BTW...Happy be-lated birthday!
ReplyDeletewow i know i had heard about it, but reading about it again brings back the knowledge on this subject. Needless to say, its an interesting topic because there are people out there that may be going through this and not even know about it. good post by the way, as it described some of the sympotms
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