Are you a Bear in Winter. Or just S.A.D.
Have you been acting a little squirrelly lately? Are you a bear to be around? Do your friends tell you that your behavior is for the birds? You may be grumpy, you may be blue, or you may be SAD. Squirrels, bears, and birds all evolved under the sun. The daily cycle of light and dark is woven into our genetic makeup. And in the season when the darkness comes early, our moods can darken as well.
We may get Seasonal Affective Disorder, or the " Winter Blues "
Humans are much like bears. The symptoms of a winter depression remind me of an animal attempting to hibernate. First, there is the grumpiness and irritability. This of course can happen to us at any time of year, but the winter blues have some special features.
We also get fat, and we want to sleep all the time. The weight gain is because patients with SAD are hungrier than is usual for them. They eat “like a bear”, and have a special craving for carbohydrates. This seems to be because our sensitivity to sweet tastes is altered by the decreased daylight. And just like any hibernating mammal, we get the urge to sleep all day and all night.
People with a regular depression often have difficulty staying asleep. People with Seasonal Affective Disorder have trouble staying awake. It is even harder for them than for most of us to get up in the morning.
Being a Bear in the morning depends on latitude.
The further north or south you are the longer and darker the winter nights, and the more likely you are to experience Seasonal Affective Disorder. The incidence in Florida and Texas is about one percent. In Alaska it averages about ten percent. The UBC Mood Disorders Clinic estimates that B.C. is in the 2-5% range most years. Winter blues can affect everyone to some extent, even is they aren’t aware of it. Studies done on 70 men and women stationed at three research stations in Antarctica found one quarter of them showed some of the signs and symptoms, and symptoms were worst in the latitudes with the longest nights.
It is a wonder to me that all the Inuit I see in National Film Board productions always seem to be so darn cheerful! The cure for this disorder of rhythm and blues is to see the light. Since the cause is too much night, the ideal treatment is to grab a little more daylight. edit.
Seeing the Light
Many patients with mild symptoms can be easily cured with a brisk morning walk outdoors. Morning is always the best time for light therapy, because it is morning that sets all the hormonal cycles of the day off right. If you can’t get outside for an hour every morning, then the next best thing is to stare into a special light for a short time at the beginning of each day. This light about ten times as bright as regular office lighting, although it is off a special wavelength so that it doesn’t bother your eyes or seem that terribly bright.
A Light Holiday
Thirty minutes in front of a SAD light each morning can trick your brain into thinking that this is the start of a gorgeous sunny spring day, and your disposition just naturally becomes sunnier as well. This sort of “dawn therapy” has been used for everything from alcoholism to PMS.
Hauling abstinent alcoholics out of bed early in the morning and sitting them in front of SAD lights helps keep them cheerful and away from the hooch for longer periods of time. And if you hadn’t already noticed, winter PMS is more severe than summer PMS, so light therapy is also useful for this disorder.
Many people who are prone to the winter blues plan a mid winter holiday to help cheer themselves up. It is no co-incidence that Christmas and New Years occur almost exactly at the darkest time of the year. Since ancient times people have needed cheerful ceremonies to jolt themselves out of the mid winter blahs.
Sunny Conferences and Meetings.
Politicians often discover an urgent need to go to sunnier climes for meetings and conferences during the winter months. Other treatments for Seasonal Affective Disorder include antidepressant medication and psychotherapy.
Almost any anti-depressant will work well. Many patients who require anti-depressant medication year round find that upping their dosage during the winter months helps them significantly. A wide variety of “psychotherapy” or “talking treatments” are valuable in SAD, although none are quite as useful as talking to your travel agent and going to Hawaii for two weeks.
Are you feeling moody and grumpy,
and withdrawing from all your friends. Would you just as soon maul someone as look at them? Have you been lethargic and wanting to sleep all the time? Do you have a hard time getting up in the morning? Have you been shoving berries ( or candies) into your face like you may not get to eat again this winter? Are you putting on winter fat?
Do you feel like you are starting to go a little nuts? Is the world becoming a grizzly sort of place? Do friends say you are acting like a loon? You may have Seasonal Affective Disorder! Don’t just hibernate – open your eyes and see the light!
Dr. Patrick Nesbitt practices Family Medicine in Maple Ridge.