Seasonal Affective Disorder Paper

North Dakota is far from the equator, creating long cold winters. Besides making people cold, the decreasing temperatures also have a significant effect on mental illness. Seasonal affective disorder, also known as (SAD) is a psychological condition identified in the 1980s. Seasonal affective disorder effects 4-6 percent of people in the united states. (SAD) affects women 4 times as much as men.

Depression is defined as, “a mood disorder marked especially by sadness, inactivity, difficulty with thinking and concentration, a significant increase or decrease in appetite and time spent sleeping, feelings of dejection and hopelessness, and sometimes suicidal thoughts or an attempt to commit suicide” (Merriam Webster). A close friend of mine battles depression and would describe it is, “a debilitating mood that makes it hard to get out of the bed in the morning, a desire to sleep all the time, inability to experience joy, and apathy towards life.” Due to its prevalent occurrence among several people groups throughout history, depression is known as the “common cold of mental illnesses” and has been called “the most widespread, serious,

I have diagnosed myself with seasonal depression, which I can assure you is a very real disease. The technical name for this disorder is Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD, which is defined as a mood disorder characterized by depression that occurs at the same time every year. Causes may be genetic, as I am sure that my dad also has seasonal depression. So many winters of my life have been spent shivering while walking around school, playing in the snow until I thought my hands would fall off, and fearing going back outside to feel the gust of cold wind take over my body. The condition gets worse during daylight savings when the sun sets at 5pm, and the cold night takes over. Thus, when applying to colleges, the coldest school I applied to was in Washington D.C. I refused to

in a SAD patient this does not occur until about two hours later. In order to

There are several types of depression some of them are but may not be limited to: Major Depression one is said to experience this most days of the week. Bipolar Disorder, these individuals experience mood episodes that can result in high energy to low depressive periods. Seasonal Affective Disorder is said to affect one mostly during the winter months when one is unable to obtain as much sunlight due to the days growing shorter. Postpartum Depression is a major depression that may affect some women in the weeks and months after birthing a child. Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder may affect some women at the start of their menstrual cycles each month. 'Situational' Depression may affect an individual when they are having trouble managing a stressful event in their life, such as a death in the family, a divorce, or losing a job. People with psychotic depression have the symptoms of major depression along with "psychotic" symptoms. For some one having atypical depression, a positive event can temporarily improve your mood (WebMD, 2014). This disease is devastating for both the individual it affects as well as his/her environment.

Seasonal depression occurs only at a certain time of the year, usually winter, because the number of daylight hours is lower. Another form of depression is psychotic depression, which is when depression and hallucinations are experienced at the same time. They all have different symptoms and should be approached differently to receive the correct treatment.

[, when the boy was three,] the patient complained of fatigue and apathy from October onward. He had been easily irritated, suffered from anxiety, and avoided his friends. He had needed more sleep than previously and have been difficult to awaken in the morning. His teachers described him as dreamy and absent-minded during the winter but energetic during the summer” (Ybe Meesters, 1998)

There really have only been studies conducted on people with possible SAD since 1984 when a man named Norman E. Rosenthal actually defined the psychological disorder (Lam). Since Rosenthal defined SAD as a syndrome characterized by recurrent depressions that occur annually at the same time each year characterized by hypersomnia, overeating, and carbohydrate craving (Newsome), there have been several studies conducted and published on people with possible SAD. Many of the studies that have been published for the general public focus mainly on the different forms of treatment for SAD, such as light therapy and different forms of Phototherapy, rather than focusing on the cause. Discovering the main causes of SAD would help to clearly identify who is actually in need of treatment related to light therapy compared to anti depressants. In my situation I had symptoms that were both characteristic of what identified SAD patients and patients suffering from mild forms of depression. When symptoms of one disorder are so closely related to symptoms of

episodes of fall/winter depression alternating with periods of spring/summer euthymia (norma l mood) or hypomania (mild elation and behavioral activation)” (2). There has been much research done to support the SAD and to find effective treatments for the annual malady such as bright light therapy. SAD generally occurs in the winter months, beginning around November and ending around March. People with symptoms of SAD differ from regular depressives in that winter depressive; have fewer suicidal tendencies, a less negative mood, fewer signs of dependency and less self-criticism. Symptoms of SAD include overeating, weight gam,

So, there are statistics showing that people with age-related macular degeneration have a higher risk at becoming depressed versus people who do not have age-related macular degeneration. This is believed to be stemmed from the decrease in socialization and independence. These patients who were once able to live on their own and maintain a normal social life are no longer able to do the things they once did on their

The photoperiodic hypothesis proposes that individuals with SAD are similar to photoperiodic mammals in such a way that they have retained this primitive biological mechanism for tracking changes in photoperiod, a circadian signal of change in season, that individuals without SAD do not have (Rohan,

Although the author is wrong about how does Circadian Rhythms happened and how to prevent it(only for 1 particular way). First of all, the author is wrong about having a dark room can help their kids, this only result in one way is depression since depression is about not interacting with people. In facts, interacting with people by talking, have fun, are ways to help the kids to release their stress at school. Furthermore, if a kid have good social life, he or she should be able to have no reason for getting depress due to their joy and love of life and games, on the contrary, by taking their equipment of having fun, they're more likely to get bored, angry, lonely, and pick on at school for not having a social network life. Therefore I conclude that the reasons that kids having depression is because of the environment and away to prevent it is to create opportunities for kids to talk with someone they feel safe, close or even able to talk with. Someone that they can trust such as a mentor health guider online. The main point of this is to help kids to communicate with someone, if they're can't communicate, that's mean they're not living but rather is creating

Furthermore, results did not support the hypothesis that the 1:00 PM class would have more positive moods than the 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM classes; however, results did suggest that mood was affected by the time of day. Nevertheless, only particular times were affected, for instance the 4:00 PM late afternoon class had higher scores for the negative moods than the 8:00 AM class. Also, the 4:00 PM class had higher scores on the shyness subscale than the 1:00 PM midday class. The results that the late afternoon class had more negative mood than the midday appear to go against the current literature given that the research suggests that Negative Affect does not fluctuate throughout the day and is not related to the circadian rhythm (Murray et al., 2002). In contrast, Positive Affect appears to be related to the circadian rhythm, tends to increase throughout the day until about 9pm, when PA

Currently, people who practice light therapy do so with the use of a light box. This device produces bright light comparable to the brightness of the sun on a summer day. Sitting in front of this light for a prescribed amount of time is expected to affect a person’s serotonin levels, which are commonly understood as being responsible for maintaining a positive mood.

SAD is generally triggered by the reduced number of daylight hours during winter, although cold temperatures and weak daylight also play a part in overall feelings of malaise. During this time, people can experience a feeling of general unhappiness, fatigue, anxiety or depression as the days get shorter and colder, which can also be accompanied by increased eating, trouble sleeping as well as feelings of confusion, forgetfulness and lack of concentration. While this condition is quite common in the UK and countries with varying seasons, employers should not overlook it as it can have a serious effect on staff productivity, motivation, morale and even their physical and mental wellbeing.