It’s that time of year again: Seasonal affective disorder.
You may have heard people saying “I have SAD” or “here come the winter blues”, but what do they really mean? SAD, or seasonal affective disorder, is a common disorder that many people experience during the colder and darker months. As far as diagnosis is concerned, SAD is no longer a stand-alone disorder. Symptoms of SAD and depression are often the same, it simply comes down to the time of the year symptoms present themselves. If a person finds themselves experiencing symptoms of depression in only the fall and winter seasons, but not during spring and summer, they would most likely be experiencing “major depressive disorder with a seasonal pattern” – the new SAD.
What are these symptoms? What should you be watching out for?
Often times when people think of depression they think of somebody not able to get out of bed, not going to work or school, crying all the time. While this certainly can be what depression looks like, it can also be you not enjoying activities you typically do enjoy, wanting to sleep more (or less!) than normal, a change in your appetite, increased feelings of guilt or hopelessness. Depression can look so very different among each person, both across symptoms AND across severity. You can still be fully functioning within your daily life and still be depressed.
What can you do about it?
It is common, especially in the state of Michigan, to start feeling down when we feel summer coming to an end and the cold, fall weather rolling in. Depression is definitely more than just “in your head”, however sometimes there are things you can do to help yourself during a depressed mood episode. First thing you can do is start seeing a therapist. A therapist often can help you see the situation differently than you are able to, as well as come up with an effective treatment plan to help you battle these symptoms. So you did your research and found your therapist, what else can you do in the meantime?
Increase your exposure to sunlight.
Now, obviously in the state of Michigan we are lucky to see the sun 5 minutes each day in the winter. A reliable substitute is a therapy sun lamp. Sitting in front of a sun lamp made specifically to help replace the benefits of sunlight can be an easy addition to your day. Set it up near your spot where you get ready in the morning. Set it up near where you read or watch tv at night. Set aside a few minutes each day to get some sun lamp rays at the same time as you do your daily mindfulness exercises. When considering buying a sun lamp, it needs to meet certain requirements. According to the Mayo Clinic, a lamp needs to provide 10,000 lux of light and emit as low amount of UV as possible. They also recommend using the lamp within the first hour of waking up (if possible) for about 20-30 minutes at a distance about 16-20 inches from your face with your eyes open (but without looking directly at the light).
Increase your activity.
Increase both your physical and social activity. When you start feeling the effects of SAD, it can be normal to want to isolate yourself more - fight this! Push yourself to get together with friends, family, loved ones (as much as COVID allows…). If physically going to see friends in person seems too daunting or difficult, then call, text, FaceTime. Make connections with those in your life to help during this difficult time. Another help is increasing your physical activity. Now I also recommend this with a grain of salt. Being told to get out and walk for 30 minutes when you are depressed can feel like being told to go climb Everest – basically impossible. Start small. Walk out to get the mail across the street every day, walk around the block, a great two for one - meet up with a friend for a walk around the neighborhood park. A great strategy to help you fight your depression is something called behavioral activation – this is a component of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). Behavioral activation is a skill that helps one understand how their feelings impact their behaviors and vice versa. The idea is that if you find yourself spending hours sitting in front of the tv doing “nothing” this can make you feel more lethargic and down. Whereas you may find yourself feeling better in the afternoon which happens to be when you take your dog for a walk after work. Behavioral activation is increasing your activity level AND connecting and understanding this increased activity with an improved mood. This is a skill that a therapist can help you explore more if they are knowledgeable about CBT.
Talk to your doctor about starting a vitamin D regimen.
Research has shown that individuals with low vitamin D levels are more likely to experience symptoms associated with depression. Individuals with low vitamin D can experience weakness and aches in bones and joints, feelings of sadness/hopelessness/helplessness, fatigue, disturbances in their sleep patterns, changes in their appetite, among many other things. Vitamin D levels can be supplemented using a sun lamp (see above), or through taking vitamin D supplements. Vitamin D supplements help improve mood by combating the deficiency you are experiencing from a lack of sun light. Talk to your health care provider to see if adding in a vitamin D supplement to your daily regime could be a good fit for you.
Antidepressants.
At the end of the day, you cannot always sun lamp and vitamin D your depression away. Depression is a chemical imbalance within your brain. Sometimes small behavioral changes can be made to help lessen the severity of the impact depression makes, but ultimately, antidepressants may be needed. Talk to your doctor about starting up an antidepressant to see if that helps reduces your symptoms.
When battling SAD, a therapist can help so much. They can help you deal with the underlying contributors of your depression, they can help you navigate the options you have for treatment, they can help guide you. Therapy doesn’t have to be a weekly standing appointment where you lay on a couch and just talk for 55 minutes. Therapy can be a shorter-term commitment, where you meet with somebody just to help come up with a plan – only committing to a handful of sessions. Don’t avoid therapy because of what you think it may be in your head. Reach out, give it a go.
