Don’t B SAD

As the days grow shorter and the winter steadily approaches, Erica Green discovers ways to avoid Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

Illustration by Erica Green

Some individuals start suffering from symptoms of depression during these winter months, with symptoms only subsiding when spring and summer arrive. It’s quite easy to dismiss the feelings as plain disgruntlement at not having had a decent summer or as early-onset Christmas Scrooginess! On a more serious note however, this may be a sign of a clinical condition known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). SAD is a mood disorder associated with episodes of depression and related to seasonal variations of light.

SAD was first noted before 1845, but was not officially named until the early 1980’s. How a behavioural disorder could possibly have been categorised during a decade of such fabulousness as one containing day-glow clothing, pop musics New Romantics and movies such as The Breakfast Club and Stand By Me is almost beyond me?! However, I digress – as diminishing quantities of sunlight have affected the seasonal activities of animals (i.e. reproductive cycles and hibernation patterns), SAD may be an effect of these seasonal light variation in humans.

Perhaps there is a little squirrel in some of us after all! As the seasons change, there’s a shift in our “biological internal clocks” or circadian rhythms, due partly to these changes in sunlight patterns. This can cause our biological clocks to be out of “step” with our daily schedules. The most difficult months for SAD sufferers are November, December, January and February, and it’s been noted that children and women are at higher risk.

Common symptoms are:
• regularly occurring symptoms of depression (excessive eating and sleeping, weight gain) during the fall or winter months.
• full remission from the depression occurs in the spring and summer months.
• symptoms have occurred in the past two years, with no non-seasonal depression episodes.
• seasonal episodes substantially outnumber non-seasonal depression episodes.
• an uncharacteristic craving for sugary and/or starchy foods.

Let there B light
Dr David Avery, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, conducted a series of studies in the 90’s investigating dawn simulation in SAD. These were published in the Amercian Journal of Psychiatry. Dawn simulation uses a device that gradually increases illumination exposure, while the patient is sleeping, to simulate a summer dawn during the winter. Significant improvements were observed using dawn simulation compared to various control conditions, despite a final illumination as low as only 250 Lux. Subsequently, light boxes can have a very positive effect.

Other studies have delved into the realms of antidepressant drugs. This is an area rich in research, however there have been few remedies offered up to date. The tendency as the weather grows colder is to retire indoors and yet this is one action guaranteed to exacerbate the condition. Now is the time to bring all the mood boosting strategies to the fore; EXERCISING, relaxing, re-balancing your work/play ratio and eating a regular supply of fresh unrefined foods. On the dietary front, there’s one group of vitamins of particular relevance, the B group. ‘B’= Boosters to Banish the autumn Blues and here’s where you find them.

Get a B in your bonnet.
B1: oats, whole grains, meat, seafood, nuts and pulses.
B2: eggs, dairy products, green leafy vegetables and pulses.
B3: nuts, meat, poultry, oily fish, dried fruits and yeast extract.
B5: beans, royal jelly, eggs, nuts and whole grains.
B6: liver, oily fish, soy products, bananas, walnuts, avocado and green leafy vegetables.
B12: sardines, white fish, eggs and dairy products.
B3 and B6 are of particular importance for mood balancing.

B happy!