Does approaching Winter season make people sad and depressed?

Question

I read in a newspaper that many people experience loneliness and depression when season is changing and winters are due.

Is that true? Why does it so?

Answer 1

I think they're referring to "Seasonal Affective Disorder" - aka SAD.

I know that part of the problem is that the circadian rhythm - your body's internal clock, which controls sleep and such - gets disrupted, partially because it starts getting dark out so much earlier (depending on where you live, of course) in the winter. You know, consciously, that it's not that late, but your body starts wanting to go to sleep. This can screw up your sleep cycles, which doesn't help.

Another part of it is that the colder weather, along with cough/cold/flu season, tends to make people less likely to be sociable. It's easier - and more comfortable - to stay home and be warm, then it is to have to go out into the cold and see people. Add the possibility of getting sick into the mix, and people, even if it's sub-consciously, might be more likely to stay home. That can and does mean being less social, which in turn can make you feel sad - you're not getting time with friends, which can in turn make you sub-consciously start to feel depressed.

It's quite an interesting topic.

Answer 2

Yes, it is true.

There is actually a psychological condition that describes this. It's called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). I'm sure you can look it up online.

It appears that the shorter days of winter mean that people aren't getting as much exposure to light, and the lack of light leads to the depression-like symptoms. In fact, if you think about it, common wisdom has a lot of references to feeling sad on rainy days, too, not just winter.

Answer 3

For people in cold climates its not just having less exposure to the sunlight (seasonal affective disorder). Its because all the nice weather and the flowers and the open windows end, then there's the nice foliage and some nice Fall weather; but people know when those leaves fall off and its gets to be cold that's it for several months.

Winter is a giant inconvenience too. There's no just running out and heading off somewhere. There are coats and boots and scaping cars and worrying about whether they'll be ice every bloody day for months. Even on nice Winter days the snow melts and makes ice at night and early mornings. There's tension about having your car just hit ice and skid you over in front of an oncoming truck (as happened to someone I know).

The difference between having beautiful warm mornings, and green stuff that moves in the wind and flowers and lunches out at the park and WINTER is stark and horrible. It gets dark (at its worst) at about 4:15 p.m, but the sun leaves the sky more like 3:45.

The Fall makes us sad because its a long time before we see Spring and Summer again. Late Fall makes us most depressed because the foliage is gone and nothing good is just around the corner. We sink into depression just before Thanksgiving, resent Christmas because we don't feel in the mood for it, and yet we go through the motions of Christmas (and maybe enjoy it here or there). The week between Christmas and New Years is a matter of getting over exhaustion, cleaning up, and getting ready for New Years Eve (and in my case for a special person's birthday). There's a brief shred of joy during the first week of January because we take the Christmas crap down and get some 75%-off bargains (stuff we don't even want or may not need until next Christmas - and yet for an hour or so we have the joy of the amazing bargain).

Then - with all the Christmas lights gone and the temperatures moving more into "heavy duty Winter" we get to look at the long, cold, boring, month of January. The slump is not as bad as the November slump, but its a slump nonetheless. The only cure for it is knowing that February is coming because psychologically we can start to see February as "right before Spring".

We don't get into our full February mode, however, until the ritual of bringing out the Valentine's Day crap is done. At this point, we can see Spring a mere two weeks away (even though March is still cold and Spring isn't until the 21st). We trick ourselves into believing Spring is two weeks away so we won't kill ourselves.

In March we see the pastel Spring stuff out in the stores - there's usually a shelf with St. Patrick's Day stuff on it and then shelf after shelf of Springtime pastel things like little decorations for the house, bunnies, candy, Peeps, flowers, etc. etc. Since the beginning of March is still usually too early for Easter (not always) and still cold, a good transition is to put up a few St. Patrick's Day decorations whether we're Irish or not. On March 18 the green stuff comes down, and its time to dig out all the Spring stuff. This gives us an enormous psychological boost, but the whole Winter depression doesn't really leave until that first really mild day when whatever snow has been on the ground melts into our basements - and we are finally happy.

For those of us who tend to be cold Winter is even more miserable. Either way, we cold-climate people tend to have six months of depression (two months of those being horrible depression), three months of absolute joy, and three months of being too hot to be all that happy.

Answer 4

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Answer 5

A big part is the lack of sunlight. What you describe is called SAD. Seasonal Affect Disorder.

Answer 6

bluff hit it right on the head. in alaska my friend had to wear a special visor for days at a time during the dark season because of the depression due to lack of uv light.

Answer 7

yes, It can affect some individuals in that way. For example, those who suffer with Seasonal Affective Disorder.

For more info. on SAD click on the following link:
http://www.mentalhealth.com/book/p40-sad.html

Answer 8

It is true. The less sunshine causes this to happen. Being exposed to sunshine causes the body to make vitamins and brain chemicals.

Answer 9

Yes. Winter sucks. Dark and cold, even in Austin, Texas. Yea 100 degress and 14+ hours of sunlight!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 10

it is true, winter is depressing to many,

but you have to get over it, or killyourself,,,,, i think its russian.