Seasonal Depression, Causes and Solutions

We live in a world of interdependence. It is the world where the entire universe, both living, and non-living things affect one another in particular ways. During the day, everyone feels happy and alert with an ability to work and happy. But when night comes, that energy we have during the day suddenly drops and soon we feel like sleeping. Therefore, the weather has a way of affecting our general state of being from time to time.

Seasonal depression also known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD) relates to how changes in seasons affect our moods and minds. Changes in seasons are associated with how different people behave from time to time about their environment. It has a way of affecting people’s mental health at different times of the year. Some people who usually enjoy sound mental health would suddenly slip into depression during winter or summer respectively. Therefore, seasonal depression is the change in the happy mood of affected persons according to seasons. Usually, seasonal depression often occurs during the cold months, starting in the fall through to winter months every year.

Symptoms of seasonal depression

Seasonal depression is sometimes called “winter depression” due to its apparent prevalence in the months of winter, but the symptoms usually begin in autumn, which last until spring and summer in different sufferers.

Below are common symptoms associated with SAD:

• Persistent low mood and loss of self-esteem.
• Withdrawal from normal activities due to loss of interest or pleasure.
• Self-blame and general feelings of despair and worthlessness.
• Lethargy and sleepy feeling during the day.
• Sleepiness and difficulty to stay awake.
• Cravings and gaining weight due to lack of activities.
• General irritability and desire to avoid social contacts.
• Anxiety and inability to tolerate stress.
• Loss of libido and lack of interest in physical contact with a sex partner.

Causes of Seasonal Depression

The causes of SAD are unknown, but it might not be unconnected with hormonal activities in the brain, responsible for triggering attitude related changes in people at such times of the year when there is change in weather.

Change in weather effects of sunlight, which causes a reduction in animal activities. During autumn and winter months, the weather changes significantly making the general atmosphere look dull and uninspiring. The human’s biological clock, which makes us react to light variation perhaps triggers a night mode feeling and causing a shift of consciousness towards sleeping.

When there is lack of sunlight, the part of the brain called hypothalamus might stop working properly and may trigger the following actions:

• The increase in production of melatonin, a sleep hormone, may cause the sleepy feeling.
• Decrease in production of serotonin, a hormone that affect mood, appetite and sleep may trigger depression.
• Normal functioning of body’s internal clock (circadian rhythm), when altered, could lead to depression.

Although these are theory of the causes of SAD, but looking at it from the way we normally feel whenever we are sleepy or during nightfall, we can take solace in the attempt of the theory to explain causes for SAD.

Can seasonal depression be treated?

Yes. There are different treatments for SAD depending on the severity of your case. You need to see your doctor or a GP determine the severity and recommend an appropriate remedy.

When to see your doctor

You should consider seeing your doctor when you noticed any of the aforementioned symptoms. Your doctor will carry out necessary assessments to affirm the presence and severity of SAD. After that, he would recommend likely treatment.

Treatments for SAD

There are different treatments for seasonal depression according to individual cases. These treatments range from psychological to behavioral, stress management as well as medication using antidepressants. Also, there are simple home remedies to help you against SAD. Let’s consider a few here.

• Light therapy: Light from a box provides light that looks like the sunshine. This type of light is significantly brighter than the normal light bulbs. The effect of light will regulate melatonin thereby improving SAD condition. It is recommended that an SAD patient sits for at least 30 minutes daily for remarkable improvement.
• Dawn Stimulator: Another variation of light therapy is the Dawn stimulator, which behaves like the rising sun in the morning. It produces rays of light in the morning and gradually increases in intensity to look like the sun. Spend more time in the bright environment.
• Talk therapy: Like every depression, SAD condition can be improved by talking with a mental health professional that will walk you through necessary steps towards improving your condition.
• Do more exercises: One of the symptoms of seasonal depression, like all other forms of depression, is withdrawal and lack of activities. One way of improving SAD condition is to engage in activities such as regular exercises. You just have to find a way to get active and burn more energy to stimulate your body. You can think of indoor workout if you can’t step out due to the winter condition.
• Change of lifestyle: Many people who suffer from seasonal depression can help themselves by changing their lifestyles. For instance, if you have the habit of being alone, try to increase your interaction with people around you. Also, try at such times to maintain activity routine such that will help you to structure your daily activities – to eat, to work, have fun, and sleep. Keeping to this schedule will help to maintain normal activities with time. In your neighborhood, you can create some events that will bring people together to have fun, dance, sing, eat and play. You can make it what everyone will look forward to.
• Medication: Apart from the therapeutic remedies, there are medications for treating SAD. While medication should be a last resort in the treatment of SAD, there are times it becomes necessary to apply some antidepressant medicines. However, you need to see your doctor to recommend a suitable anti-depressant for you.

Seasonal depression is a condition that develops due to changes in weather. To maintain a sound state of mental health during the cold season, you have to adjust your activities to counter the general state of inactivity of the period. Getting more information and following on workable recommendations will help you to remain mentally healthy all year round.