SAD and the Winter Blues
Seasonal affective disorder affects over 10 million Americans and is a serious, often debilitating medical condition that can leave those that suffer from it incapacitated from depression, chronic lethargy, and other serious symptoms. A similar phenomenon is frequently called the “winter blues” or even sometimes known as the “post-holiday blues.” Though these “blues” conditions affect millions more people than that of seasonal affective disorder, the severity of the conditions vary greatly.
Seasonal affective disorder victims start showing serious signs of distress as early in the cooler months as mind autumn. The seasonal affective disorder period can be as long as six months and can last until March, when spring arrives. The condition arises from an offset of chemicals that are naturally released by the brain as a result of being exposed to natural light, particularly sunlight. The seasonal affective disorder sufferer can experience a variety of symptoms such as sever weight fluctuation, depression, mood swings, irritability, insomnia, and feelings of suicide. Because of its severity, many physicians and researchers often recommend strong anti-depressants to seasonal affective disorder sufferers for mood stabilization.
The “blues,” particularly “post-holiday blues” are most often attributed to the absence of an immediate event to look forward to following the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve celebrations that have just passed. Persons who have these blues may suddenly feel “dropped” into the new year with nothing to look forward to, especially when compared to the hustle and bustle experienced throughout the holiday rush. These cases of the blues almost never require any treatment other than a healthy dose of time and separation from the end of the holidays. As the winter rolls on, it is quite normal for those susceptible to the “post-holiday blues” to continue on with the more broadly termed “winter blues,” though both afflictions are very similar in nature.
As with the “post-holiday blues,” the “winter blues” are very temporary and usually easily treated with exercise, happier thoughts, and time used to get the sufferer’s mind off his/her depressed state.
While the two may seem an awful lot alike to the bystander, the seasonal affliction disorder sufferer dealing with years of SAD with seemingly no control over their behavior and thoughts would agree that they are very largely separate conditions, even though they seem much the same on the outside. If someone suspects that they have seasonal affective disorder, they should seek immediate medical help and professional treatment options immediately.
