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Winter Or Winter, The Winter Or Seasonal Affective Disorder?

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What comes first to mind when picturing winter or summer? Does summer make you think of ice cream and having fun on beaches whereas winter brings up memories of cold and uninviting scenery? If so, you may be one of the many people diagnosed with Seasonal Affective Disorder- S.A.D. for short. But- the question still lingers- Is Seasonal Affective Disorder real or can people just not handle the cold? Seasonal Affective Disorder is not a real disorder rather it is a growingly recognized characteristic of discomfort with the cold seasons in the indistinctive population. While S.A.D. was long not taken as a serious diagnosis it recently gained attention and a growing amount of scientific papers- such as- "reverse seasonal affective disorder" (3), "seasonal affective disorder in children and adolescents" (9), "seasonal premenstrual syndrome" ( 10), seasonal battering of women (I I) and a “hypothesized seasonal obesity disorder” (12) (All referenced in the attached article) referred to S.A.D. as a citation for seasonal disorders.

So is Seasonal Affective Disorder a valid excuse to be depressed during winter and happy during the summer or is it false ailment that people cling too as an excuse for hating the cold? According to ‘S.A.D or Fad’ the early research that looked more into the disorder were primarily based off psychiatric inpatients. And now the majority of people who are diagnosed with seasonal disorder are those who have bipolar disorder as well and are being treated

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