Seasonal depression

By Christina Lacey
Are you someone who loves the changing leaves but hates the darker evenings and shorter days? The shorter days can bring on sadness for some and depression for others. Seasonal affective disorder can be brought on by shorter days, cloudy days and coldness. This sadness or depression  comes on every year at the same time and can go away same time each year. People can really struggle getting out of bed and being motivated and they may think but that is normal because "everybody is like that in fall or winter".

According to the Mayo Clinic's website there are several types of seasonal affective disorder. Here is what I found.

"In most cases, seasonal affective disorder symptoms appear during late fall or early winter and go away during the sunnier days of spring and summer. Less commonly, people with the opposite pattern have symptoms that begin in spring or summer. In either case, symptoms may start out mild and become more severe as the season progresses.
Signs and symptoms of SAD may include:
  • Feeling depressed most of the day, nearly every day
  • Losing interest in activities you once enjoyed
  • Having low energy
  • Having problems with sleeping
  • Experiencing changes in your appetite or weight
  • Feeling sluggish or agitated
  • Having difficulty concentrating
  • Feeling hopeless, worthless or guilty
  • Having frequent thoughts of death or suicide

Fall and winter SAD

Symptoms specific to winter-onset SAD, sometimes called winter depression, may include:
  • Oversleeping
  • Appetite changes, especially a craving for foods high in carbohydrates
  • Weight gain
  • Tiredness or low energy"
If you think this could be you there are treatments. There is light therapy, medications or talk therapy. You don't have to suffer.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/seasonal-affective-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20364651

As a Marriage and Family Therapist, I see individuals and couples mostly. I enjoy working with my clients and learning about them and how they can be better as an individual and also to others around them.

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