Winter Blues: How To Fight Seasonal Affective Disorder

For many people, the arrival of winter is an extra dose of sadness: time does not accompany and it is easy to fall into the temptation to stay at home, make less social life and even change the diet with the excuse that we need more calories to fight cold. But although we think that it is something normal and typical of this season, suffering from several of these symptoms is reason enough to assess whether a sub type of depression is known as winter depression or seasonal affective disorder (whose acronym is SAD).

How to recognize it

The symptoms that can make one suspect that winter depression is suffered would be:

• A depressive mood.
• Loss of interest for hobbies or tasks that previously interested us.
• Sleep disturbances that, depending on the person, can result in the need to sleep more or suffer from insomnia.
• Alterations in appetite. There are people who tend to eat more or choose foods with more sugar because they feel low mood and feel that taking something sweet increases their energy level, while other people do not feel like doing anything and lose the desire to eat and eat.
• Social withdrawal.

This type of depression usually appears at the end of autumn and lasts all winter, coinciding with the fact that there are less hours of sunshine and the weather is colder. In fact, the lower light exposure is considered as the main cause of this disease and the symptoms usually remit or are relieved with the arrival of spring.

People who live in countries with fewer hours of sunshine as well as those genetically more sensitive who react to the amount of light in their environment are also more likely to suffer from it.

It is important to differentiate winter depression from a low mood. The symptoms of any depression can become disabling and significantly interfere with the daily life of a person. It should also be borne in mind that this type of depression only appears in certain months of the year while the mood bass can happen at any time.

How to face it

In most cases, it can be overcome by implementing a series of tips that experts recommend:

• First, return to the daily routine that many of the affected people have abandoned due to loss of interest.
• Take up the sport and introduce it on a daily basis. It is especially advisable to perform some type of outdoor exercise taking full advantage of the hours of sunlight.
• Eat a healthy and balanced diet, since the consumption of sugary foods and empty calories only makes the situation worse.

Sometimes, to treat the seasonal affective disorder, treatment with phototherapy boxes is used. It is performed in an artificial photo-stimulation room and consists of light stimulating the patient with very bright light lamps that mimic natural light and cause a chemical change in the brain that improves symptoms.

When to go to the specialist?

Although many people can overcome winter depression on their own, if the symptoms prevent you from continuing with the daily routine, it is time to make an appointment with the psychologist. If you have lost interest in doing things that you liked before and don’t feel like relating to others, you need to ask for help. And it means that you don’t have to be afraid or feel ashamed, the two main reasons why people delay applying for professional help.