It has been past few years since I am aware how my body and mind changes every winter. Autumn is an amazing season full of colours, but it always reminds me of what is coming next. Dark cold winter when my whole body wants hibernate, slow down and do as little as possible. I used to beat myself up for such feelings, thinking that somehow my body is malfunctioning and something must be wrong with me if I experience low moods and lack of motivation, heaviness in my body as winter moths approach. I used to push myself and I still do at times as our society is certainly not accommodating these changes.
As time passed as more I have seen every year what is happening with me, I have started to understand that these feelings I have are quite common across society specially within more sensitive individuals and they are not unnatural to have although are considered to be part of depression. They have a name and in fact might be much more natural to human kind than we might think.
As someone who experiences and quite likely suffers from seasonal depression or correctly called Seasonal Affective Disorder and is slowly creeping in this time of the year, I thought there is no better moment to bring on the table this term, debunk some misconceptions in relation to it and help us understand our changing moods a little bit better.
What is Seasonal Depression
According to NHS in UK: ‘Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that comes and goes in a seasonal pattern.
SAD is sometimes known as “winter depression” because the symptoms are usually more apparent and more severe during the winter. Some people with SAD may have symptoms during the summer and feel better during the winter. Symptoms of SAD can include:
- a persistent low mood
- a loss of pleasure or interest in normal everyday activities
- irritability
- feelings of despair, guilt and worthlessness
- feeling lethargic (lacking in energy) and sleepy during the day
- sleeping for longer than normal and finding it hard to get up in the morning
- craving carbohydrates and gaining weight
- difficulty concentrating
- decreased sex drive
For some people, these symptoms can be severe and have a significant impact on their day-to-day activities,’ in which case you should talk to your GP or therapist.
As we can see winter blues are defined as a form of depression, which affects people in relation to changing seasons. Interesting part here and something I am quite curios about is if this is somewhat more prone for people living in northern countries. I mostly came across with such feeling here in Scotland due to the fact there is bigger extreme in between summer and winter when comes to light access and so vitamin D.
Mersch et al. (1999) have reviewed the relationship between SAD and latitude of residence. Patients with climatic conditions affective disorder have episodes of major depression that tend to recur in cold weather. This conclusion is an indicator that maybe population of colder countries experience such more often and even maybe I have developed such here due to the cold and dark environment. In fact the whys here are not as important. Important is the awareness of the condition and how can we help it.
Is seasonal depression quite a natural state?
Before we get there I would like to talk a little bit more about the fact that this is form of depression and such realisation might be a little bit difficult for some people to hear. Depression has a lot of negative popularity and many people are scared to be associated with such serious negative term. Yet there is high possibility we all experienced some depressive period if not more than one throughout our lives knowingly or unknowingly. The label again is not as important, but recognition of such feelings might be.
You might be asking why do we need to be aware, isn’t it better if we don’t and just get on with it?
What get on with it really means?
I would be assuming it means we find ways how to function despite having such feeling, we would want to help ourselves with means possible and available to live fulfilling life. In fact many of us do that, but awareness of it is the link inbetween pure surviving without addressing the issue and actually living.
Can we get on with cancer if we don’t know it is spreading inside of us, how can we treat it if we do not even know it exists. With physical health it gets easier we can see broken leg, spots on the skin or feel strong pain in different parts of our bodies, but with mental health the symptoms might be often more subtle and less if even visible. Without awareness of depression we might feel in relation to changing seasons, we are denying the fact something is happening within us what in fact might be more natural than we might think.
Where it comes from?
This is pure speculation and I did not find actual research which would back this theory – in fact it is not even possible, because we don’t have this kind of health information from our ancestors, but I wander if our bodies are in fact build to experience seasonal depression as an ancestral inheritance.
We have no means to study if our ancestors in experienced mental health issues, but we recognise slow forming of rituals when comes to celebrating death, social aspect of creating community and times of more intense and less intense work of hunting and gathering. One could easily speculate if they were just more connected with their bodies and so if tired they would sleep, if hungry they would eat, if sad they would honour their death or stick with others or likely find solitude of sorts. We don’t know these things, but what we know is if we are not in connection with our bodies and we push our bodies against natural rhythm which our technological and industrial era demands of us, we are finding ourselves feeling more low and with mental health issues.
If we’d look at our ancestors of past 12 000 years, who became farmers and settled, I wander if seasonal depression might be something natural to happen. They would often work hard, outdoors within communities in summer, whereas their body would naturally slow down and they’d take more rest in winters, being more inside with less people. We can only speculate if our bodies are responding to a natural occurrence in mostly cold months, something what human kind have always experienced or if even depression related to seasons is a form of illness in modern world, maybe because we are less connected to our bodies than ever before.
Is SAD really depression?
As we learnt earlier SAD is classed to be a form of depression due to its symptoms. We could agree if symptoms are the measure it certainly sounds like depression. What if we go a bit farther into more complex interconnected and take as the measure environment and natural responses of body to such environment. It has been proved that depressive episodes are mostly present in colder weather conditions.
One could think if our bodies are in fact accustomed to outdoor warmer or more light conditions if we move indoors during dark and cold periods our bodies naturally slow down getting ready to more hibernation period which in fact all our ancestors seam to experience. So if we are looking at SAD from this angle, is it really a depression or is it even a disorder or is it just a natural response of our bodies to the environment and ancestral way of functioning.
Hunters and gatherers maybe used to be more in connection with their bodies and farmers maybe slowed down in winter months. Suddenly in past few centuries we’ve started demanding same amount of work all year long, we’ve stopped listening to our bodies and what once was natural to do in connection to nature and our bodies became a disorder because it is not profitable to have slowing down and hibernating individuals in the society half of the year.
How can we deal with SAD?
If the symptoms become severe please talk to your GP, but if you more experience just winter blues, when your body is asking for more rest, more quiet, slowing down and feels a bit more low, maybe just listen and acknowledge it. Don’t try to push it away or beat yourself up that you are not keeping up with everything as you might be able to do in summer periods. It is likely quite natural rhythm of your body, which is just sensitive to changes in the environment and in the nature. Everyone is different and everyone will need something different, but listen what is your body is asking of you.
Is it more rest?
Is it more solitude and quietness?
Is it more balance or less workload?
Is it need for interactions?
Is it need for outdoors?
Is it need to move as you were sitting too much?
Whatever you find that will be likely correct answer. Keep an eye on disguised cravings and in fact unhealthy impulses, which might be telling in their own disguised way what you really need. But that would be a topic for another day.
Let me know if you experience winter blues, were diagnosed with Seasonal affective disorder and how you experience it? What is helping you?
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