Although winter in cold weather states can be fun for those who love winter activities, it's not so easy for those who suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).
Those with SAD suffer depression in the winter months, as the lack of strength with sunlight causes an imbalance in brain chemistry for those who suffer from this.
Medications, psychotherapy and light therapy often helps those with this disorder. Light therapy should be started around September and mostly prevents depression as opposed to boosting someone of out the depression in the middle of the winter.
We should simply do what Scandinavians do in those times (when half of the year is dark) : Eat lots of ice cream, chocolate and get lots of electrical light. Recently, a light restaurant opened in one of those countries, in which you can dine comfortably while being bathed in generous overdoses of electrical light.
Unfortunately, some with SAD can't overcome their disorder even with today's treatments. Hence, mental health providers have to strongly recommend these folks to move to Florida or any other southern state. No joke.
In the winter of '09, the weather in Maine was more like a Rhode Island winter, as the temperature rose above 32 F on a regular basis that year. And not-so-coincidently, it was the only winter in years in which I did not get depressed.
No offense to anyone but I don't believe in SAD. Funnily enough the acronym spells sad. My .02 I think it's another clever marketing gimmick by pharmaceutical companies to push more antidepressants. Just like Social Anxiety Disorder, which also acronyms as sad.:unsure:
Now don't get me wrong, I myself feel a little 'down' and less energetic in the winter and cloudy/rainy days. It's just the ebb and flow of life. On days where the sun is shining and birds are chirping, I feel more 'up' than on an average days. That feeling is a natural high if you will.
The pharmaceutical companies are trying to convince us that we should feel that natural high every day. IMHO, it's dangerous -- Without low and high points neither mean anything and everything becomes generic.
Big Dan, there's no doubt that pharmaceutical companies do whatever it takes to many as much money as they possibly can. But when I've had serious issues with depression, it was usually in the winter months.
Part of why is because their's less to do in general during Maine winters compared to the warmer-weather months. However, that's just part of the problem. The other reason winter is tough for myself as well as others really is because of less exposer to the sun. And many people with SAD find spending the winter months down south as something that's helpful.
We do get Vitamin D from the sun, that could be part of it. I myself tend to be in a downer mood during the winter. It hits me the most when the weather is all of a sudden cold, instead of the hot 100+ degrees that I've become accustomed to in the previous season. After the initial hit, I'm normally fine. I wouldn't call my condition SAD because its not that severe I guess.
As I had mentioned on this thread earlier, the winter of '09 was relatively warm here in Maine. And as of the time of this writing, this winter (the winter of '12) has also been relatively mild around here as well. And not-so-coincidentaly, I haven't had any real issues with depression this winter either.
