When January and February roll around in Minnesota, days are short and nights are long; for some Minnesotans this brings the winter blues – a condition called seasonal affective disorder or SAD. Signs of the disorder include sleeping a lot, changes in eating habits, feelings of sadness, anxiety, weight gain, irritability, headaches, and loss of energy. Some estimates indicate that SAD affects between 2 and 10 percent of Americans. The onset generally occurs with young adults and affects more women than men. Carole Staelgrave, a psychologist with Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota, often counsels people at this time of year with SAD. “Living in the winter in Minnesota means that we have less daylight,” she says. “Sometimes people will close their curtains, and so there’s a lot of darkness in the house, and they don’t get a lot of natural sunlight. Those things can have noticeable impact on our mood.” While doctors aren’t sure what causes SAD, reduced sunlight, heredity, stress, and the body’s chemical make-up are all thought to be contributing factors. Some scientists believe that an increase in melatonin, a sleep-related hormone related to depression, that occurs during winter months is a cause. Others point to a lack of seratonin, a brain chemical triggered by sunlight, that brings on a depressed mood. While severe cases can be treated with bright-light therapy or light boxes as well as drug therapy, Staelgrave says that there are several proactive steps that people can take for milder levels of SAD. “Those kinds of things might include exercising because, when we exercise, endorphins are released in our body. And that’s a feel-good chemical. It’s a natural anti-depressant. Other kinds of things people can do are to find somebody to talk with. Any sort of creative endeavors – writing, making music as well as listening to it, would be some ideas of things that can be helpful.”
