SAD Strikes As Winter Light Fades
Posted February 1, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Are you feeling sad? Chances are you may be feeling SAD.
No, it’s not a case of caps lock getting stuck on a computer. SAD stands for Seasonal Affective Disorder and even though the days are getting longer, it already seems like it’s been winter forever.
SAD is a syndrome that strikes many in northern climates that don’t get access to enough sunlight.
We used to call it the winter blahs. But about 30 years ago, it was given its new moniker.
And it’s not just your imagination.
A new study confirms you really do feel rotten as the light goes out of your life.
A full 27 percent of those asked admit they get more suicidal thoughts at this time of the year.
Another 12 percent feel angrier and seven percent confess to being more depressed.
Add in a long spell with no vacation time after the Christmas break and there’s reason to feel blue.
“It’s a hard time of year, when people don’t have a lot to look forward to,” explains Karen Seward of Shepell Counselling. “They’re getting all their bills in the mail from the holidays.”
Amy Keir agrees that’s part of what’s ailing her. “Not enough money and not enough work or time,” she concedes, summing up the lives of millions of others.
The problem just creates new ones, because the worse you feel the less you want to do, exacerbating the condition.
So what’s the answer?
Don’t give in to the feelings, and make an effort to try whatever you can as a remedy. Once you start, a lot of the problems dissipate.
Among the suggestions that don’t involve medication:
- A special light lamp that simulates sunshine
- Exercise, even in the cold
- Vitamin supplements to conquer a Vitamin A deficiency
- And more milk and fish to increase your Vitamin D intake.
So who came up with this syndrome in the first place? Here’s an overview of the SAD truth.
It all started, appropriately enough, with a shrink.
In the late 1970’s, a South African psychologist named Norman Rosenthal came to New York to start his residency. He noticed that in the winter, he became tired and sluggish, feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work. But the feeling disappeared in the spring.
It didn’t take him long to figure out the change in his attitude was due to his latitude: he was in a place with shorter days and longer nights.
Rosenthal put his theory to the test using patients with a history of winter depression. He exposed them to artificial light for several hours a day, and found many reported their symptoms were improved.
And thus began the change from the ‘winter blahs’ to a recognized syndrome known as “Seasonal Affective Disorder.”
Symptoms of SAD correspond to those most commonly reported in depression: feeling sad and listless, change in appetite, weight gain, drop in energy, tendency to oversleep, difficulty with concentration and irritability.
The major difference: the symptoms disappear with the season. Doctors now believe a lack of serotonin may be responsible for the disorder, which responds well to medications that boost the levels of that neurotransmitter in the brain.
Still, there’s more we don’t know about SAD than what we do: why, for example, aren’t people at higher latitudes more susceptible to the syndrome? (It’s almost unheard of in Iceland.) What does that mean for the light theory? Or are there genetic factors at work?
Doctors don’t know, but they’ll be spending many winters to come studying this phenomenon – hopefully with the lights on.
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