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Health Tip: Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

Are feeling sad frequently these days?  Feel like you want to just stay in bed for the day?  Are you starting to lose interest in everyday activities or things you once enjoyed?  These can all be symptom of depression but they also might be symptoms of S.A.D. – Seasonal Affective Disorder. 

This disorder is actually caused by lack of sunshine.  Melatonin is a hormone that is produced in the brain during the dark hours of the day.  When we go for periods of time without much sunlight, the melatonin levels may increase in our system.  For some, this may affect their internal body clock and lead to depression.  For this reason, it appears to affect more people during the fall and winter time when the days are shorter and often gray and cloudy.

Symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder are:

• Depression
• Irritability
• Hopelessness
• Anxiety
• Loss of energy
• Social Withdrawal
• Oversleeping and maybe even feeling as thought you would like to hibernate.
• Appetite changes including an increase in craving of high carbohydrate foods.
• Weight gain
• Difficulty concentrating

There are a couple different types of therapy for this disorder.  For some, light therapy makes a huge difference.  This may be as simple as sitting under a special light, usually in the morning so as not to interfere with sleep patterns.  Anyone that may have bipolar disease would need to discuss the light therapy with their primary care physician.  Sometimes anti anxiety drugs are used as well to treat the depression that goes along with it.

Whatever the cause, if you are feeling down more days than not, be sure and discuss this with your doctor as soon as possible.  For those that truly have S.A.D. - have hope, spring is just around the corner!

 

 

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