Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

Seasonal Affective Disorder is a specific type of depression. With SAD, a person’s depression flares up and goes away reliably around the same time each year—usually starting in the fall or winter and getting better by spring or summer. For a doctor to diagnose it, this pattern has to have happened for at least two years, and the seasonal depression episodes must be more common than non-seasonal ones.

Symptoms:

Symptoms can include low energy, oversleeping, carb carvings, and withdrawal, persistent sadness, loss of interest, concentration issues, and suicidal thoughts, significantly impacting daily life, and is linked to reduced sunlight affecting brain chemistry. Key differentiators for winter SAD are oversleeping, increased appetite with weight gain, and carb cravings, while summer SAD may involve insomnia, anxiety, and weight loss.

Treatment:

SAD can be effectively treated, treatment includes light therapy, antidepressant medications, talk therapy or some combination of these. Symptoms generally improve on their own with the change of the season and can improve more quickly with treatment, especially if they have become severe.

Light therapy involves sitting in front of a light therapy box that emits a very bright light (filters out harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays). Usually requires 20 minutes or more per day, and typically first thing in the morning during winter months. Most individuals see some improvements from light therapy within one or two weeks of beginning treatment.

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) in talk therapy can effectively treat SAD. Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are the antidepressants most commonly used to treat SAD.