SAD

 The Sadness of SAD

 Seasonal Affective Disorder

I cannot but remember

When the year grows old

--October -- November –

How she disliked the cold!

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Throughout the ages, winter has been associated with darkness, cold, and bleak isolation. When Shakespeare’s King Richard III speaks of the winter of his discontent, he refers to his ultimate depths of despondency. Yet, despite the fact that countless people worldwide suffer from despair during the winter months, this cyclical dysfunction has gained relatively recent recognition as a prevalent, treatable disorder.

 SAD’s symptoms include many of those encompassed in depression: lethargy, impaired concentration, diminished acuity in performing routine tasks, withdrawal from social interaction, increased appetite resulting in weight gain, and its consequent loss of self-esteem and well-being. The immune system becomes depleted, rendering the sufferer more susceptible to infections and other illnesses.

 SAD generally appears between the ages of eighteen and thirty. Often beginning in young adulthood, the sooner SAD is diagnosed; the quicker a treatment plan can be implemented, forestalling recurrence in later life. Reportedly, SAD is more common in women than men, in a four-to-one ratio. This, however, may be due in part to a reticence on the part of men to admit to despair. While a growing number of men seek counselling for various types of emotional pain, it remains more difficult for men to concede being plagued by inner turmoil than it is for their female counterparts. This residual machismo may be seen in that, while relieving stress via alcohol, men tend to pride themselves on not taking pills, perceiving the ingestion of tablets as an indication of weakness.

What are the optimal treatments for SAD? The well-known methods are available: antidepressants and counselling. Once SAD has been diagnosed by a physician, it may prove vital to begin taking antidepressants more than a month before the onset of winter, as it often requires as long as six weeks for these medications to become effective. Counselling can be utilised in conjunction with antidepressants, or as an alternative treatment modality. Thus, it is sometimes advisable to contact a counsellor before SAD has an opportunity to take hold, in order to make a tentative appointment, ideally forestalling the need for medication. In terms of counselling, it often proves fruitful to be aware that an empathic ear is available, should the need for such support arise and intensify.

SAD may begin in the form of prevalent unhappy thoughts and memories, exacerbated by increasing darkness and cold. If you feel you might be a SAD sufferer, some additional recommendations include: Lay in a supply of books which you have been meaning to read, but have yet to get to. View these books as mental/emotional firewood; the echoes of some of them may outlast the winter-might even become a part of your soul. Books are friends; invite them to sit at your fireside.

While scientific research is still being conducted into this field, it is known that when the body’s absorption of light is decreased, sleep patterns can be disrupted, disturbed. Light boxes, also called dawn simulators, can provide that crucial light of which we are deprived during winter. It is known that, the further south one lives from the equator, the higher is the percentage of SAD. Often, SAD is caused by the absence of light reaching the body through the retina. Thus, the replicated sunlight delivered through light boxes, operates in the same way as does the sun during the spring and summer months, aiding the metabolising of Vitamin D. Some SAD sufferers enjoy setting a light box timer a quarter hour before their day begins, allowing them to awake to the sun. Others prefer to switch on a light box shortly after awakening, in order to glide into the day in a sunlit ambiance. It may also prove useful to have a CD of birdsongs at hand, along with floral fragrances reminiscent of spring and summer. A drop of one or more of these oils, poured onto a tissue to sniff when desired, can contribute to the spring-like sense of sun glowing, birds singing, buds opening and blossoms in bloom. An opposite but pleasing idea is to embrace winter, with all the warmth the word can evoke. Why not, of an evening or at any leisure hour, wrap yourself in a comforting quilt, put a heating pad under your back and/or feet, place a log on your fire, or relax to a CD or DVD of a bright, crackling fire? Enjoy a cup of warmed cider, ovalteen or hot cocoa? Speaking of chocolate, an ever-enticing thought, brings us to winter’s hormonal effects. The hormone Oxytocin, its name derived from the Greek “quick birth”, has been called “the cuddle hormone” because it floods mothers’ systems during labour, just prior to their giving birth. This hormone continues to be secreted during the nursing process, stimulated by the sucking motion of the infant’s mouth on the mother’s nipple. Chocolate is a major source of Oxytocin. (Chile peppers contain it as well, but have far less universal appeal.) Experiments are being conducted into the value of oxytocin   in tablet form, but to date, no reliable information has become available. Ideally, oxytocin will, in time become, like caffeine, a legal mood-lifter. In botanical lore, the herb lad’s love derived its name because, placed in a nosegay, it was thought to spark a lady’s libido. Perhaps chocolate is our modern lad’s love, the chocolate-box the alluring bouquet. In any case, scientific research makes clear that chocolate, as a carrier of Oxytocin, encourages us to feel happier and more responsive to those around us. This endorphin is also sparked by the affection of those we like and love. For this reason, in addition to sipping hot cocoa in winter, let’s hug those we love, during winter and all year round - both parties will benefit. But what about winter weight gain? While hugs have no calories, chocolate has loads. Ingestion of chocolate, combined with the lack of exercise often a bi-product of winter, makes it hard to wake from winter’s cocoon without a dispiriting layer of flesh. To prevent or minimise this distress, limit your mugs of hot chocolate to a treat to celebrate a festivity, or a comfort during the depths of cold doldrums. Indoor exercise can provide a sustaining means of weight maintenance during winter. Creating and then adhering to a daily exercise programme will bring you a sense of achievement while jump-starting your brain’s feel-good hormones. A treadmill and indoor bicycle are worthwhile; they will prove sound allies. At a lesser cost, a stepper and wrist and ankle weights are fruitful assistants. These weights are invaluable in that you can benefit by wearing them while engaged in everyday tasks. Amazingly soon, (I speak from experience) you may forget you are wearing them, but during every second you do so, with even the slightest movement of arm, leg, finger or toe, you will shed calories.

There is, as yet, no definitive solution for SAD. It is hoped that, for many, utilising the above suggestions, those days each year, lasting from the end of autumn till the beginning of spring, can become, if not the season of choice, a time of contentment.

© Colleen Swan