Winter is coming, and it's the time of year
where sunlight deprivation is at its highest.
It's always seasonal affective disorder.
So joining our conversation this morning,
we have our Nine News Wellness expert
and psychotherapist, Heather Hans.
Heather, good morning. Good to see you.
I appreciate you being here to talk
about this because this is certainly
something that a lot of people
are going to be impacted by.
Actually, 6% of adults we know suffer
from seasonal affective disorder.
So what are the symptoms that
people can be looking out for?
Sure. And and people can also have
winter Blues that's not quite as severe,
but it's classified as major depressive
disorder with seasonal pattern.
It can actually happen in the summer too,
for different reasons,
but mostly it happens in the winter,
people who have a history of it,
a family history of sad or
depression or if you're female.
You're more likely to get it and the the
symptoms are due to the brain associating
the less sunlight with needing more sleep.
So it increases melatonin and that creates
these depressive symptoms like overeating,
oversleeping, irritability,
losing energy,
losing interest in things that you enjoy.
And you also have serotonin,
which normally makes us feel awake
that drops and so that increases
those depressive symptoms.
As well,
yeah, I definitely have
been affected by this.
You know, sometimes I'll walk
into my home and I'm like,
who left this mess here? Ohh, it's me.
I haven't been cleaning the
way I typically like to do.
How do you know the difference between
what would you call holiday Blues or,
yes, winter Blues?
Winter Blues versus
seasonal affective disorder?
Good question.
Winter Blues doesn't affect
your daily life so severely.
You can still function.
Whereas seasonal affective
disorder really is interfering
with your daily life and it
can also happen in the summer.
OK, perfect. So what? What are?
White ways that some people who
are affected can actually help
themselves if if they maybe find
themselves in the situation,
sure. So the main treatment is light therapy,
and you can do that artificially
or with natural sunlight.
Amazon sells what are called light
boxes that mimic natural sunlight.
I keep one on my desk.
You could keep it there for
30 to 60 minutes a day.
And you can also sit by a window,
schedule time to get outside because
no one wants to do it when it's cold.
And then some people schedule a tropical.
Medication every winter that helps.
And then another thing to do is to
really increase your stress stress
management skills in the winter because
the lower vitamin D from the sunlight can
cause stress and damage in the brain.
And so a couple of quick ways
to diffuse stress easily is to
engage your physical senses.
So eating something spicy,
taking a whiff of perfume,
listening to loud music?
Really. Yeah.
Another way you could do that
is by talking to yourself.
And third person,
like you're your own coach,
you know,
we're gonna do this now we're
just kind of giving yourself pep
talks that that does it quickly.
I like that, OK. I also
like the spicy food things,
right? Seafood, because it,
you know, it brings your attention
out of your mind into the physical.
And one last tip is to try and find ways
to exercise everyday and reduce sugar,
because exercise is the
best way to boost mood,
even if it's just a walk or playing
a game outside taking a trip.
The Rec Center and people tend
to get overweight in the winter
because of that drop in serotonin.
So then they crave sugar and and you
don't make the best choices for your
nutrition when you're stressed anyway.
So increasing protein can help with that.
Ohh good to know. Yeah.
You just kind of get stuck in
this like terrible cycle. OK.
So let's say you've tried all
of these things right and you're
still kind of impacted by this.
At what point do you know it's OK
to maybe get help with medicine?
Yeah, that's a great question for
people to talk with their doctors
about because it really depends on the.
Individual and their history,
their family history, their symptoms.
But we do know that people with
sad have a higher incidence of
addiction because they tend to self
medicate with alcohol or drugs and
medication is can cause dependence.
So if it's used,
it should be used seasonally and in
addition to those other health habits.
All right. Good to know.
Heather, thank you so much.
I appreciate that.
I'm learning a lot from you
every time we do this. Ohh,
I'm honored. Thank you so much, Jordan.