As winter approaches and daylight hours become shorter, people with seasonal depression can feel it in their body and mind. “It’s a feeling of panic, fear, anxiety and dread all at once,” said Jermaine Pataki, 63, of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
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She is one of the millions of people who suffer from seasonal affective disorder, or SAD. Her coping strategies include yoga, walking, and an antidepressant. She is also part of a Facebook group for people with SAD.
“I try to focus on helping others through this,” Pataky said. “It gives me purpose.”
People with SAD typically have episodes of depression that begin in the fall and subside in the spring or summer. Changing the clocks back to standard time, which happens this weekend, can be a trigger for SAD. A milder form, subsyndromal SAD, is recognized by medical experts, and there is also a summer variety of seasonal depression, although less is known about it.
In 1984, a team led by Dr. Norman Rosenthal, then a researcher at the National Institutes of Health, first described SAD and coined the term. He said, “I believe that because it is easy to remember, the acronym stuck.”
What causes seasonal affective disorder?
Scientists are learning how specialized cells in our eyes convert the blue wavelength part of the light spectrum into nerve signals that affect mood and alertness.
Sunlight is rich in blue light, so when cells absorb it, our brain’s alertness centers are activated and we feel more awake and possibly happier.
Researcher Katherine Roecklin at the University of Pittsburgh tested people with and without SAD to see how their eyes responded to blue light. As a group, people with SAD were less sensitive to blue light than others, especially during the winter months. This suggests a cause of winter depression.
“In the winter, when light levels drop, that, coupled with reduced sensitivity, may be too low for healthy functioning, which can lead to depression,” Roecklin said.
Miriam Cherry, 50, of Larchmont, New York, said she spent the summer planning how she would deal with her winter depression. “It’s like clockwork,” Cherry said. “There is less sunlight. The day ends at 4:45, and suddenly I’m in a bad mood.”
Does light therapy help?
Many people with SAD respond to light therapy, said Dr. Paul Desson of Yale University’s Winter Depression Research Clinic.
“The first thing to try is lighting,” Desson said. “When we expose patients to bright light for half an hour or more every morning, most patients get dramatically better. We don’t even need medicines.”
The therapy involves devices that emit light about 20 times brighter than regular indoor lighting.
Research supports using illumination of approximately 10,000 lux, which is a measure of brightness. According to research, you have to use it for 30 minutes every morning. Desson said this could help not only people with SAD but also people with less severe winter blahs.
Specialty lights run from $70 to $400. Some products marketed for SAD aren’t very good, Desson said.
Yale has tested products and offered a list of recommendations, and the nonprofit Center for Environmental Medical Sciences has a consumer guide to choosing lighting.
If your doctor has diagnosed you with SAD, check with your insurance company to see if the cost of lighting may be covered, Desson suggested.
What about talk therapy or medication?
Antidepressant medications along with light therapy are first-line treatments for SAD. Doctors recommend keeping a regular sleep schedule and going outside even on cloudy days.
The benefits of light therapy may fade when people stop using it. One type of talk therapy — cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT — has been shown to have more lasting effects in studies, said Kelly Rohan, a researcher at the University of Vermont.
CBT involves working with a therapist to identify and modify unhelpful thoughts.
“A very common thought of people is ‘I hate winter,'” said Rohan. He suggested, “To put it in simple words, ‘I like summer more than winter.'” This is a factual statement. But it has a neutral effect on mood.”
Working with a therapist can help people take small steps toward finding joy again, Rohan said. Try planning simple but enjoyable activities to break out of hibernation mode, which “could be as simple as meeting a friend for coffee,” Rohan said.
What else can be useful?
People with SAD have half a year to come up with coping strategies, and some have found tricks that work for them—though there may be little scientific support.
Elizabeth Wescott, 69, of Folsom, California, finds that contrast showers help. This is a hydrotherapy derived from sports medicine that involves alternating hot and cold water while bathing. She also uses a light box and takes antidepressant medication.
“I’m always looking for new tools,” Wescott said.
Cherry in New York is devoting a corner of her garden to the first flowers to bloom: snowdrops, winter aconite and hellebores. These bloom in early February.
“That would be a sign to me that this won’t last forever,” Cherry said. “It will get better, and spring is coming.
