The days are getting shorter and the weather has turned grey and gloomy. Are you getting the winter blues?
Many people’s moods are affected by the changing seasons. Winter often means less time outside, and having to face a few months of wet, cold, miserable weather. However, for people with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) winter feels much more sinister; it means the onset of debilitating depression and other unpleasant symptoms.
What is Seasonal Affective Disorder?
Seasonal Affective Disorder is a form of depression that only appears in the winter months.
Symptoms of SAD go beyond a winter “slump” and have significant and painful effects on sufferers’ lives.
People with SAD may have trouble waking up in the mornings, and feel tired and lethargic most of the time. Oversleeping and overeating are common among Seasonal Affective Disorder sufferers. Many people with SAD develop strong cravings for carbohydrates throughout the winter and often gain weight.
Other symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder include difficulty concentrating or following through on tasks, social withdrawal, loss of interest in sex, and feelings of hopelessness and depression. Some people also experience nausea or morning sickness.
SAD starts to improve when spring appears and the number of daylight hours increases.
To be officially diagnosed with Seasonal Affective Disorder, all four points below must apply to you:
- Depressive episodes during the winter months (possibly starting in autumn)
- Remission of depression in spring
- Depression at least two winters in a row with no major depressive episodes in between
- The number of seasonal depressive episodes outnumber other depressive episodes throughout your lifetime.
If you have depressive episodes at other times or your symptoms don’t get better during the spring, you may be suffering from another form of depression.
Who gets SAD (and why)?
The causes of Seasonal Affective Disorder are not fully understood but there are a few factors that seem to play a part.
Lack of daylight appears to have a major role in Seasonal Affective Disorder. Our bodies respond to darkness by secreting a hormone called melatonin, which causes drowsiness and helps regulate our sleep-wake cycles. Too much melatonin could explain the lethargy that people with SAD feel. The rates of SAD are higher in places where there is a big change in the number of daylight hours from summer to winter. However, people can develop SAD anywhere – there are people with SAD all over the world.
Serotonin is another chemical in the brain that has been linked with depression and mood changes. Levels of serotonin tend drop in winter, and some researchers think that susceptible people may develop Seasonal Affective Disorder as a result.
People with a history of depression may have a higher risk of developing SAD.
Age also plays a part; most sufferers of SAD are over 20 years old.
Women are more likely to develop Seasonal Affective Disorder than men, but men’s symptoms tend to be more extreme.
What are the treatments for Seasonal Affective Disorder?
There are several available treatment options that can help alleviate the symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder.
Light therapy is one of the most widely used treatments for SAD It involves sitting in front of a full-spectrum light source for 20-60 minutes per day. Light therapy has been shown to decrease melatonin levels and increase serotonin levels. Many people start to show improvement within the first week of use, and after several weeks most people feel a significant improvement in their symptoms. Getting daylight exposure as early in the day as possible can also help with the symptoms of SAD.
Antidepressants can also be effective in treating Seasonal Affective Disorder, although they often take longer to begin working than light therapy.
Self-care such as exercising, drinking only moderate amounts of alcohol, and keeping regular sleeping and eating patterns can be helpful. However, those habits can be very difficult for sufferers of SAD to maintain.
Psychotherapy has also been shown to be effective in helping alleviate the symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder. The support that counselling provides can make a huge difference in helping people get through the tough winter months. Psychotherapy can be used as the sole form of treatment, or it can be undertaken alongside light therapy or antidepressants to give you the best chance of finding relief from SAD symptoms.
If you or someone you know is suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder, the team at Paul the Counsellor can help. You need not suffer through the symptoms of SAD on your own.
0458 090 687
paulthecounsellor@gmail.com
253 Lonsdale St, Melbourne VIC 3000
