Gloominess of Autumn and Winter months can be a time of serious mental illness
It’s the time of year again where the cold morning walk to class is not nearly as enticing as your warm bed. The weather feels dark and gloomy one moment, and nice and sunny the next, while more and more of your money seems to be going towards buying hot beverages. Eurgh.
While what you may be experiencing is simply the unpleasantness of autumn and winter, for others it may be a time of serious mental health issues. Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that, according to DSM-5 (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition) “patients…predominantly women, [who] become regularly depressed in autumn and winter and experience remission in spring and summer.” SAD has also, in rare cases, caused depression in the spring or early summer, but there have not been enough studies done to warrant their own diagnostic category.
Despite the specific cause for SAD remaining unknown, some associated symptoms of SAD include: depression, hopelessness, oversleeping, anxiety, social withdrawal, appetite changes such as craving carbohydrates, trouble concentrating, and weight gain. Lots of evidence suggests that individuals with SAD can also be seen to have deficits in processing light through their eyes, develop symptoms due to a lack of adequate environmental light, and some patients have found that an increase in their environmental light has decreased their symptoms of SAD.
A chief biological mechanism underlying SAD, which is discussed in lots of literature on the topic, is the possibility of a circadian phase delay or advance. This hypothesis proposes that one rhythm is ahead or behind another rhythm (e.g. sleep-wake cycle), and most research testing this idea has focused on the nocturnal melatonin released from the pineal gland. It is believed that the later dawns found in the autumn and winter months may contribute to a phase delay on the onset of release of melatonin in some people at night, while earlier dusks may influence other individuals in a similar way. Studies have also suggested that the prevalence of an individual having SAD is higher in those areas further away from the equator.
Light therapy has been suggested and administered to those who have SAD, and in Terman et al.’s review on light therapy in the Neuropsychopharmacology journal, it was determined that light therapy done in the early morning had higher remission rates compared to that of the evening or midday. Among those patients who were treated with light therapy in the morning, the amount of improvement seen correlated with degree of phase advance. It is still unclear, unfortunately, whether these delays or advances found are consequences of individuals having SAD, or whether these effects can be found prior to its development. As well, though most theories have seen the predisposition for SAD as coming from biological explanations, there is also research indicating that there are psychological factors too.
As more research is being done, the awareness of SAD will hopefully increase, along with methods to help. Mark Berber, an assistant professor at Queen’s University’s Department of Psychiatry offers the advice of eating healthy foods.
“Veggies, fruit, low-fat protein, basically all the stuff that is good for you is also good for fighting depression,” says Dr. Berber.
Dr. Berber also recommends staying energized by setting commitments well in advance instead of leaving them to the day of. He also recommends exercise to raise endorphins. This advice is great to follow—even for those of you who are just experiencing the winter blues.
Whatever you do, it is key to never feel like giving up. You’re not alone in your endeavors.