Suffer From the Winter Blues No More!
Learn how to win the battle against seasonal affective disorder
By Sanna Montgomery
Winter is here, snow is on the ground [NOTE: can reword closer to release date, if no snow on ground!], the days are much shorter and nights longer. Some of us look forward to this season and all of its amenities. Skiing, sledding, ice skating, drinking hot cocoa in front of a cozy fire after a long, arduous day at work. However, for some of us, this time of year can be debilitating and exhausting due to a seasonal depression known as seasonal affective disorder or SAD.
Do you suffer from lethargy, excessive eating and sleeping during the colder months? If your answer is “yes,” you may be suffering from SAD, but you’re not alone. Roughly 5% of adult Americans suffer from winter SAD and less than 1% has its summer counterpart [NOTE: E-mailing Sanna about source for this].
SAD usually occurs when summer transitions into fall, the days get shorter and the nights get longer, which according to the Mayo Clinic, may trigger feelings of depression, lethargy, fatigue and other problems. The Mayo Clinic (www.mayoclinic.com) lists the following symptoms of winter-onset SAD:
If you experience these symptoms every year, during the same time of year (late fall, early winter) but then they disappear when the weather becomes sunnier and warmer, you may be suffering from more than just the “winter blues.” SAD is a type of depression that should not be taken lightly.
There are ways to properly diagnose SAD
Michigan native Dr. Amy Bahl, affiliated with St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan, states, “Seasonal affective disorder is a form of depression that occurs normally in the wintertime. There is the belief that when some people aren’t around light, different chemical changes in the body occur, changes in hormones take place, all of which affect our regular circadian rhythm.”
According to the American Heritage Science Dictionary, circadian rhythm is a daily cycle of biological activity based on a 24-hour period and influenced by regular variations in the environment, such as the alternation of night and day. Circadian rhythms include sleeping and waking in animals, flower closing and opening in angiosperms, and tissue growth and differentiation in fungi.
“Everyone has their own circadian rhythm,” Bahl states, “And it is influenced by light. One’s circadian rhythm is affected when days are shorter and nights are longer, which affects how we feel, throwing off our day/night cycle. The decreased amount of light then causes SAD.”
To diagnose SAD, Bahl instructs patients to keep a journal for two years, and once a pattern is determined, then the disorder can be diagnosed.
Treatments
“SAD can be very debilitating if not properly taken care of,” continues Bahl, “the person doesn’t want to do the normal things they once enjoyed doing, they just don’t care anymore and are not socializing as much as they did in the summer months.”
To treat SAD, some believe that light therapy can be beneficial to these patients since the lack of light seems to be the main culprit. Decreased serotonin levels are linked with depressive symptoms due to lack of adequate sunlight. Bright light treatment, such as sitting in front of a light box for a certain amount of time, increases the levels of serotonin in your body.
Dictionary.com cites that serotonin is a neurotransmitter, derived from tryotophan, which is involved in sleep, depression, memory and other neurological processes. Unbalanced serotonin levels can promote a string of “feeling blue” days. When that is the case, medications, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), are prescribed. Sometimes with taking an SSRI, counseling is also prescribed by the doctor to help the patient cope with SAD.
“In addition to seeing a counselor, I encourage my patients who suffer from SAD to try to be in natural sunlight as much as possible,” says Bahl. “If you work in a cubicle, try to sit by a window, or take your lunch outside on a sunny day. Natural light truly makes a difference.”
A Mind Body & Soul staff suggestion for light therapy: Go out and purchase a sunrise alarm clock. This type of alarm clock slowly increases the light next to your bed that simulates the sun rising. It gradually wakes you with increased light. An even easier idea is to go to your local hardware store and purchase a light timer, which you can plug an existing lamp into and set it to turn on at the same time every morning.
Can tanning beds help?
When it comes to light therapy, the subject of tanning booths usually enter the discussion. You’ll have to be the one to decide whether tanning booths help with SAD or not. It’s common knowledge that tanning booths emit UVA rays, which damage and prematurely age the skin, and can also cause malignant melanoma, a form skin cancer, if overexposed. Moderation is key when using a tanning booth, and when tanning on the beach you should always use the highest SPF available. Of course, we absorb Vitamin D from the sun’s powerful rays, which we need, but we don’t need skin cancer, so cover up if you know you’re going to be exposed to UVA rays for a prolonged amount of time.
Additionally, Dr. Bahl states, “As women, when we get depressed we lose interest in things that we used to enjoy. We eat more and tend to retreat indoors, and avoid socializing with friends. Sometimes all we can do is go to and from work every day during the winter due to seasonal affective disorder. It really affects one’s quality of life. However, treatments and medications are out there, you just have to find the one that works for you.”
Treat yourself!
Bob Clark, owner of Four Seasons Sunrooms in Ann Arbor, believes that sunrooms can be very useful to treating SAD.
“People are like plants, we need the sunlight for energy,” says Clark. “A sunroom provides us with that. Even on the hazy days in Michigan, the sunlight is driven through the glass, creating warmth and offering a source of natural light.”
Sufferers of SAD greatly benefit from direct light so a sunroom is a great, logical solution.
“To me, everyone suffers from SAD, some more than others, and the fact is that light helps people with SAD,” says Clark.
It’s true that Michigan winters are especially dark and cold, as Clark points out, “Where do people living in Michigan go during the winter? Someplace warmer and sunnier.” A client of Clark’s was a convalescence home in Ann Arbor where its residents could tend to plants and just enjoy the warm sunroom. “In following up with that client, they reported an increase in good moods among the residents after the sunroom had been added.”
People who suffer from SAD may find that just being in a warm, well-lit area could help uplift their mood. Finding a warm atmosphere during the winter in Michigan, other than the normal, run-of-the-mill places, might be difficult. However, the Detroit Zoo, located at the northwest corner of the intersection of Woodward and 10 Mile (I-696) in Royal Oak, offers an uncommon solution. The Zoo’s beautiful Butterfly Garden is a serene, if not fairy-tale like, exhibit, “where every day of the year visitors come face to face with hundreds of butterflies as they fly freely through the lush indoor garden.”
This is a great treat that you can do on your own or with your loved ones! The garden’s temperature-controlled environment creates a natural habitat in which the butterflies can thrive and offers visitors a warm, relaxing exhibit to visit during winter trips to the Zoo.
“I love coming to work in the winter and starting my day with a walk through the butterfly garden. It’s always warm and bright and it feels like a little tropical getaway after coming in from the cold. I meet a lot of visitors who come by the Zoo just to sit and relax in the garden while watching the butterflies and hummingbirds fly around,” says Laura Palombi, associate curator of invertebrates at the Detroit Zoo.
To find further information about this exhibit, go to http://www.detroitzoo.org/Attractions/Other_Exhibits/Butterfly_Garden/.
For more information about sunrooms, visit fourseasonssunrooms.com.