Seasonal Affective Disorder, is a depression that occurs normally at the same time every year. It starts and ends same time and that is related to change in seasons.

This starts in the late fall or early winter and ends mostly during the spring and summer commonly known as winter depression or winter pattern SAD. Even some people experience during spring and summer months known as Summer depression or summer pattern SAD.

Symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder

As the season progresses, it becomes severe and starts out mild.

Check out the following signs and symptoms of SAD:

• Having problems with sleeping too much
• Difficulty in concentrating
• Feeling of worthless, guilty or hopeless
• Low of energy
• Feeling sad and down mostly everyday
• No interest in favorite activities
• Experiencing carbohydrate cravings, overeating and weight gain

Fall and winter Seasonal Affective Disorder symptoms

• Tiredness or low energy
• Appetite changes, especially a craving for foods high in carbohydrates
• Weight gain
• Oversleeping

Spring and summer Seasonal Affective Disorder symptoms

• Weight loss
• Poor appetite
• Increased irritability
• Anxiety
• Trouble sleeping (insomnia)

How to fight with SAD?

There are treatments available for people going through SAD. There are mainly four categories that one can use in combination or alone.

Light therapy

Under this treatment, a person sits in front of a light box which is about 20 times brighter than indoor light for about 45 minutes. It filter out the damaging UV light and is safe for treatment. This is only done under proper medical supervision..

Antidepressant medications

Antidepression medication could result to side effects so it is always advisable to get in touch with your doctor and go for medical medication as per their prescriptions.

Talk Therapy

We also known talk therapy as Psychotherapy have aim to help people learn how to cope with difficult situations. This is one of the effective treatment for handling SAD symptoms.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D deficiency may be one of the reason of SAD in many people. Taking up nutritional supplements of Vitamin D help in improving SAD.

This post is part of Blogchatter’s CauseAChatter‘

© Ruchie Verma.

Disclaimer: This blog post is meant to be educational in nature and does not replace the advice of a medical professional.

Copyright Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links are used, provided that clear credit is given to Ruchi Verma (wigglingpen) with the right and specific direction to the original content.