do you think many people suffer from s.a.d.?

Question

what causes it

Answer 1

SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) is a type of winter depression that affects an estimated half a million people every winter between September and April; in particular during December, January and February.

SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) is a type of winter depression that affects an estimated half a million people every Winter between September and April, in particular during December, January and February.

It is caused by a biochemical imbalance in the hypothalamus due to the shortening of daylight hours and the lack of sunlight in winter.

For many people SAD is a seriously disabling illness, preventing them from functioning normally without continuous medical treatment.

For others, it is a mild but debilitating condition causing discomfort but not severe suffering. We call this subsyndromal SAD or 'winter blues.'

Symptoms

The symptoms of SAD usually recur regularly each Winter, starting between September and November and continuing until March or April. A diagnosis can be made after three or more consecutive Winters of symptoms, which include a number of the following
Sleep problems: Usually desire to oversleep and difficulty staying awake but, in some cases, disturbed sleep and early morning wakening
Lethargy: Feeling of fatigue and inability to carry out normal routine
Overeating: Craving for carbohydrates and sweet foods, usually resulting in weight gain
Depression: Feelings of misery, guilt and loss of self-esteem, sometimes hopelessness and despair, sometimes apathy and loss of feelings
Social problems: Irritability and desire to avoid social contact
Anxiety: Tension and inability to tolerate stress
Loss of libido Decreased interest in sex and physical contact
Mood changes In some sufferers, extremes of mood and short periods of hypomania (overactivity) in spring and autumn.

Most sufferers show signs of a weakened immune, system during the Winter, and are more vulnerable to infections and other illnesses.

SAD symptoms disappear in Spring, either suddenly with a short period (e.g., four weeks) of hypomania or hyperactivity, or gradually, depending on the intensity of sunlight in the Spring and early Summer.

In sub-syndromal SAD, symptoms such as tiredness, lethargy, sleep and eating problems occur, but depression and anxiety are absent or mild.

SAD may begin at any age but the main age of onset is between 18 and 30 years.

It occurs throughout the northern and southern hemispheres but is extremely rare in those living within 30 degrees of the Equator, where daylight hours are long, constant and extremely bright.

Answer 2

How am I supposed to know?!

There are 4 different types of SAD

SchiztoEffective Disorder- 1/100(0) peeps are thought to be a schizto in some way, usually appears in males in their early 20s cause is unknown
Seasonal Affective Disorder- Most everybody, usually caused by lack of vitamin D, the D is good for ya!!
Social Anxiety Disorder- A few peeps, it's usually caused by earlier trama or something, or their just born that way
Separation Anxiety Disorder- It's called home sickness and if someone gets seperated from an object or something they become really depressed, causes are unknown

Answer 3

I think many more people suffer from these sort of problems than we realise.
Don't you ever get times when all you want to do is sleep or cry or both? I think everyone suffers but some are better at either masking it or coping than others.
It is very true that when you smile, the world smiles with you but when you cry, you cry alone.

Answer 4

Some doctors believe a lack of serotonin may be the cause and exposure to bright white light helps alleviate the problem. Others believe their may be other causes such as lack of melatonin. But SAD is a serious disorder, and sometimes requires hospitalisation.

Answer 5

Only attention seekers. Its a bit of a made up condition. If researchers had not named it, fewer people would know about and fewr would claim to suffer from it. I come from the tropics and was advised by the doctor to fit natural light in my home. What an absolute waste of 600 pounds.

Answer 6

As new terms are coined, people flock to the new term, so there are perhaps a bit fewer than suffer from depression.

What causes it is essentially the same thing that causes depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, etc. A lack of understanding of where ones thoughts come from, and how vulnerable one is [emotionally] to subtle shifts in environmental changes relative to how these interfere with ones agenda and expectations.

In other words, when ones normal coping activities are interrupted, ones MIND, in order to keep one fixated outside oneself [to avoid one discovering that ones MIND is behind ones thoughts] feeds thoughts that are of concern to one, or that causes one to think about, or worry about. A thought such as "gee its gloomy" for example, is a bit depressing, and thus one becomes a bit depressed, and begins to pull inward....oops, ones MIND then feeds one a thought that maybe one is unusually depressed? Worry begins, and the MIND has successfully avoided one looking inside oneself [ones MIND realm] for what is going on within ones head. This cycle repeats itself until one seeks some drug to deal with ones depression. And as long as one is on drugs, there is no danger that one can access ones MIND realm.

Good business for the drug companies, and mellow for the users.

Peace

Answer 7

I do, yet i'm getting by it devoid of doing particular gentle scientific care or something. i do no longer make a great deal out of it. If i think a splash goth or morbid that day, oh properly. nevertheless me. i detect attractiveness in each and all the seasons, in besides the fact that way i will and now that i'm older, i'm too busy to grant in to the urge to oversleep or sleep too lots or consume extra carbs or whatnot. i are starting to be to be to the place I hardly consume and my sleep continues to be disturbed, I stay wakeful too long each and every so often close to to autumn, yet finally i'm getting returned on objective. that is techniques over rely.... Get extra sunshine....

Answer 8

If you don't get enough Vitamin D which is the sunshine vitamin then it stops you taking in as much calcium which can have an effect on mood.

Also the actual effect of the light in the eyes is supposed to have an effect on our sleeping patterns, so if we don't get enough then our tiredness can increase.

You people in scotland need more Vitamin D xx

Answer 9

many people suffer from s.a.d. it has something to do with the lack of vitamin D that we get from sunlight. also I and my brothers belive that, like women, men suffer from monthly mood swings.. pmt for men?.

Answer 10

I don't know how many do, but I try to go for walks in the winter with my dog if the sun is out and the weather isn't too bad.