Seasonal Affective Disorder

Seasonal Affective Depression

Seasonal Affective Disorder, also known as SAD, affects a small percentage of the population. When these individuals do not receive sufficiently intense rays from the sun, their bodies began losing vitamin D, and chemical changes take place that cause depression. SAD symptoms are more likely during the winter months, although an individual may be affected during spring, fall, and summer also..

This depression is seasonal, showing up in life at a specific time of year, every year. I suffered from it for several years before I made the connection. For three years, somewhere between October and December I became very depressed. I wasn't sad because I dislike Christmas or because I was having another birthday. I didn't get enough sun, and my body chemistry was working in a depleted state. That causes me have have symptoms of depression, and other bipolar symptoms.

I understand that taking vitamin D and Omega fish oils can sometimes ease the situation, relieving symptoms to some extent. A sun box was prescribed for me, and I'm about to start using it to see if it makes a difference in my mood -- although it's February. In a couple of months, my mood will probably swing back where it belongs. I consider summer my most stable time of year.

The chemical basis of seasonal affective depression is the depleted biochemical state because winter's sun's angle is too indirect to send strong intense sunshine. The person can't turn off the feelings it creates -- though my mother telling me to for so many years should have made some impression. The way others deal with your depression will have an affect on you.

My mother understands that my bipolar symptoms aren't my fault when it's explained to her, but then she gets frustrated with me because I won't "be myself." I'm the only me I know how to be at any moment. Sometimes my moods pass quickly.

My Mother, my friend, becomes very annoyed, to the point she can't remember it's not my fault. Needless hurtful words almost always ensue. It took me a long time to recognize my seasonal association with depression. For my own sanity, I have to build an emotional fence around the subject with my mother. But it's hard because eventually, you have to talk to someone--or you'll fade away into the bedsheets.

One good thing about my Seasonal Affective Depression is that it lifts, flows away by itself during spring, or certainly by summer. This is something that I can predict yearly -- to the month. It will come and it will go. It's the time in-between, during the depression, that causes the problem with which some people have to deal. In my opinion, sun boxes are a small part of the fix. It takes medication or a change od season for the SAD symptoms to ease.