How Much Do You Know About Seasonal Affective Disorder

By Author: Isabel
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Do you believe that different seasons can also affect your sleep quality? And have you heard something about seasonal affective disorder?

SAD is seasonal affective disorder, which is a type of depression that may occur at the same time each year, especially during the fall and winter month. In other words, people who feel depressed in the winter but feel better in the spring and summer may have seasonal affective disorder.

This mood disorder means people who have normal mental health throughout most of the year experience depressive symptoms in the winter or summer, spring or autumn year after year. If you are like most people with seasonal affective disorder, your symptoms start in the fall and may continue into the winter months, sapping your energy and making you feel moody.

Winter-onset depression is the most common type of seasonal affective disorder, but it does not mean SAD only appear start from fall to winter. A much less common type of SAD, known as summer-onset depression, usually begins in the late spring or early summer and goes away by winter.

According to the experts, SAD may be related ...
... to changes in the amount of daylight during different times of the year. Depression is triggered by the brain's response to decreased daylight exposure, however no one really understands how and why this happens. As seasons change, people experience a shift in their biological internal clock or circadian rhythm that can cause them to be out of step with their daily schedule.

Winter-onset seasonal affective disorder symptoms include depression, hopelessness, anxiety, loss of energy, don't want to attend any social activity and always feel sleepy. Summer-onset seasonal affective disorder symptoms include difficult to fall asleep, don't want to eat something, this poor appetition leads to weight loss, and patients find their mood become uncontrollable.

Phototherapy or bright light therapy has been shown to suppress the brain’s secretion of melatonin. Although, there have been no research findings to definitely link this therapy with an antidepressant effect, light therapy has been shown to be effective in up to 85 percent of diagnosed cases.

It can sometimes be hard to tell the difference between nonseasonal depression and SAD, because many of the symptoms are the same. If you have above symptoms for a few days, don't be worries about it. But once it influences your normal life you'd better to see your doctor.

Sometimes SAD will make people produce a feeing of suicidal, depression let them don't want to keep going on their lives, so consult a doctor is necessary.

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