Seasonal Affective Disorder is real. Here's how to get through it

As the days get shorter and temperatures drop, it's common to feel depressed and low on energy. In this episode, tips from the psychiatrist who first studied SAD on how to weather the colder, darker months ahead. This episode originally ran Oct 2020. Follow us on Instagram: @nprlifekit https://www.instagram.com/nprlifekit/?hl=en Sign up for our newsletter here. https://www.npr.org/newsletter/life-kit Have an episode idea or feedback you want to share? Email us at [email protected] mailto:[email protected] Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening and convenient playlists of popular help topics like personal finance, getting healthy, and more. Learn more at plus.npr.org http://plus.npr.org/. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This message comes from Data IQ Agent Management. Most enterprises can count every device, every login, and every contractor. Almost none can count their AI agents. Take control of your agentic workforce with one view across every platform and tool, showing what's driving revenue, what's drifted, and who signed off on it. Visit dataiku.com. That's data I K U dot com.

• 0:23Speaker 01

  Hey, everybody. It's Marielle. Seasonal affective disorder may not be your typical inspiration for a song, but when Maya was a teenager, she was trying to understand her feelings.

• 0:35Speaker 02

  Seasonal depression's got me sleeping off the days. And we've wasted all our time feeling great.

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  That's Maya, who also goes by the name MXM Toon. She's a singer songwriter from California. She doesn't use her last name publicly to protect the privacy of her family.

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  And I was feeling sad, looking outside, seeing that the weather was really bad and that it was dark outside, like just lying there for hours and hours, not knowing how to get out of bed and move or do anything. And it just makes it really difficult to do basic, normal things, like getting up and going to eat a meal or going to drink water or even using the bathroom.

• 1:17Speaker 01

  And she wrote that song when she was a teenager, trying to understand her dark feelings during the winter. Being 16 at the time, Maya turned to social media.

• 1:26Speaker 02

  I went on Twitter and I was like, am I crazy? Because I feel really sad right now and the weather is really horrible and I don't like it. And people are like, that sounds like you have seasonal affective disorder. It's like sad and you should look into it. So I talked to my parents and they're like, yeah, that's also something that I experience and go through and talk to my friends and they're like, yeah, it's also something that I go through. And I just realized that everybody feels horrible weather outside also makes you feel horrible inside. And so that's how I kind of discovered it.

• 1:52Speaker 01

  On this episode of Life Kit, we are talking about seasonal affective disorder, or SAD. It's a type of depression that's related to the change in seasons. Maybe you've never put a name to why, come winter, you just wanted to stay under the covers all day or you didn't want to meet friends or just felt like you were in a fog. Reporter Kavitha Cardoza is going to explain why you might feel this way and share some simple ways to feel better and more like yourself.

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  Dr. Norman Rosenthal is a clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University School of Medicine. Years ago, he noticed feeling less energetic during the winter and began studying the problem in others who said they felt the same way.

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  Just like the autumn leaves, they became depressed on schedule. People getting less energetic and feeling worse as the days got shorter. And then in the spring, all of that being reversed. So it seemed like quite a distinct syndrome. And that was our first study of seasonal affective disorder, which is what it became known as.

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  He found about one in 20 people in the US has seasonal affective disorder or full-blown winter depression, feeling sluggish, depressed, oversleeping, overeating. You may gain weight and be disinterested in doing things you previously enjoyed. Many more have the winter blues, a milder version where you feel like basically a sadder, sleepier, or slower version of yourself. One of Rosenthal's patients described themselves as feeling like a bear in the winter and wanting to hibernate.

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  So if you feel any identification with a hibernating bear, think you might well have SAD.

• 4:57Speaker 05

  But in spring, those symptoms go away and you start feeling like yourself again. Women are about three times more vulnerable than men, and the condition seems to be more common in the northern hemisphere. Rosenthal says mood disorders were called affective disorders.

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  Affect is just another word for mood. And I thought, well, this is seasonal. And if we have seasonal affective disorder, it would be a snappy acronym, SAD. And that's what it's become known as ever since.

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  So now we know what we're dealing with. Let's talk about a game plan.

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  Takeaway one is recognize your symptoms and their seasonal pattern. A funny, well, not so funny story. A few years ago, I called a friend in January. I was in tears and she said, I was expecting this. And I said, what do you mean? And she said, Kavitha, you always call me crying in January. It shouldn't have taken me years to connect my sadness with the seasons. Dr. Rosenthal says if every fall, when it gets darker earlier, you feel like things are getting more difficult.

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  Ask yourself, does it get better in the bright days of spring and summer? And if the answer is yes, it's almost a diagnosis one can make on one's own.

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  You probably have SAD. But a reminder, if you have any concerns, always consult a professional. Rosenthal says the change in seasons affect people along a spectrum, meaning some people don't feel different at all and some people are quite disabled by it.

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  We've defined SAD as being people who would go to a doctor because the problem was bad enough.

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  There's been a lot of skepticism over the years about whether SAD is a real disorder. Rosenthal says that's because it creeps up on you.

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  For example, it, you know, might be a little bit serious in September and a little worse in October and a little worse in November. It's a little bit like the story of the frog in the bowl that keeps getting warmed up. And he doesn't really realize that he's going to die of overheating because it happens so incrementally. That's how it is with SAD and the winter blues.

• 7:12Speaker 05

  But he says recognizing your symptoms and taking them seriously is critical because SAD can be debilitating or worse. Takeaway two is let there be light because light and not getting enough of it is at the heart of this disorder. Light is the main cue for when to wake up and when to sleep. It kind of acts as a universal synchronizer between all life. We'll talk more about that in a second.

• 7:39Speaker 06

  It turns out that a fundamental part of the physiology of this condition is that some people just need more light. They don't seem as sensitive to light as other people.

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  One often recommended fix for this is a SAD lamp. Rosenthal says these lamps generate light that's far more intense than indoor lighting, about 10,000 lux, a measurement of light.

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  I like fixtures that are a little larger. For example, maybe one foot by one and a half feet, one foot up and down, one and a half foot across.

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  He says this light is absorbed through the eyes, not the skin.

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  And I never stare at the light. It's always coming down a little bit from an upper angle. I like the boxes that transmit the light downwards because that's how we evolved to see light with the heavens above and the sun shining down so that it comes and hits the bottom part of our retina. The morning is often the best time and the earlier the better.

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  He says if you use a lamp for about 20 to 30 minutes a day, you should feel a difference within two weeks. If you don't, return it. Recent studies suggest that the value of preventative light therapy is inconclusive. It's really a patient's preference whether to use it or not. But Rosenthal says it's still a common treatment for those with SAD because for some, SAD lamps can make a big difference. Like Isabella Harris, who's known as Iz in the vlogging world and lives in Virginia. She experiences SAD as.

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  General like fogginess and sleepiness.

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  Most people go about their day normally with indoor lighting, but for people with SAD, that indoor lighting is the equivalent of darkness. Iz bought a SAD lamp, as they're known, and the result was night and day.

• 9:29Speaker 07

  It's like what someone feels like when they jump into cold water and it brings you to like a sharper alertness. If I come in like feeling a bit foggy headed, I'll turn it on and it functions a lot like taking a walk outside. Just like allowing my brain to wake up a little bit. And that's probably not the clinical term, but it feels like it's like waking up. And on the days that I don't, I notice a significant difference in, you know, irritability and kind of just general hopelessness and definitely in energy levels.

• 10:14Speaker 05

  And even if you do use a SAD lamp, make sure you're still trying to get as much natural light as possible. Go outside, even if you don't feel like it. Even when it seems overcast, you're still getting light from the sun. And remember, small things can make a difference. So trim any overgrowth around your windows and clean the panes.

• 10:38Speaker 01

  We'll have more Life Kit after the break.

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• 11:30Speaker 05

  Takeaway three is being thoughtful and consistent about what you eat. Dr. Rosenthal says people with SAD have a tremendous craving for carbohydrates.

• 11:40Speaker 06

  They crave sweets and starches. And needless to say, that puts on weight and they can't always take it off in the summer. So every year they're ratcheting up a little more, a little more, and it's a real problem.

• 11:54Speaker 05

  Emily Manoukian is a PhD and clinical researcher at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. She says it's not just what you eat and how much, but when. To understand this, we need to talk about circadian rhythms.

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  Circadian is just Latin for about a day. And so when we talk about circadian rhythms, it's referring to these 24 hour rhythms that we have within our body and kind of throughout biology.

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  Think of every cell and system in your body as having a tiny clock. And each of these tiny clocks are on approximately 24 hour cycles. So a master clock in your brain has to coordinate and make sure they all work together. This circadian system essentially signals your body what time of day it is, what time of year it is, and helps match your behavior with the environment. Manoukian says people with SAD usually have a sort of delay in their circadian rhythm, meaning something's a little off.

• 12:51Speaker 01

  It might really be getting at that they're having a harder time coordinating their internal rhythms with the environment. And so as you start to not be able to resync every day, that can lead to kind of this misalignment of my body doesn't think it's time and now I'm forcing it to wake up.

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  Manoukian says, just like light, food is a strong environmental signal.

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  If you're eating, your body thinks it should be awake. Eating is the biggest cue to your digestive system, to the rest of your body.

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  So what does this have to do with SAD? She says when days get shorter, eating or not eating is a good way to signal all those tiny clocks.

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  Being able to coordinate your internal clocks with your environment can kind of help ease any burden that changes in seasons might have.

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  Make sure to stop eating three hours before you go to bed. So your body knows it's time to rest.

• 13:35Speaker 01

  By just controlling the time that you eat and say, keep it to a consistent 10 to 12 hours every day, you're now giving your body a really strong cue to tell it the time of day that it is, regardless of anything else that's going on.

• 13:47Speaker 05

  Takeaway four is get some exercise. Emily Manoukian says like light or food, it's another environmental cue that helps signal all those internal clocks, what time it is.

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  There's a lot more data coming out now on how physical activity actually affects your clocks and how that feedback feeds back on the master clock in the brain to be able to kind of coordinate your system.

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  She says physical activity is a cue that says, wake up.

• 14:13Speaker 01

  And so by doing things like exercising, you know, during the active time of your day can actually help your body again, know kind of what time of day it is, coordinate, you know, using all that energy and, you know, stimulating the brain to be awake to the right time of day, and then allowing your body to really rest in the evening. Really controlling those external cues allows your body to really respond to the environment much better.

• 14:38Speaker 05

  If you work out indoors, Rosenthal says make sure you put on that SAD lamp for a tufa.

• 14:44Speaker 06

  I never work out indoors during the winter without having my light box on. And I would encourage other people, especially those with this problem, to do the same.

• 14:54Speaker 05

  He says when it's cold and dark and you don't feel energetic and aren't active, it's a vicious cycle.

• 15:00Speaker 06

  You don't feel like getting up in the morning, so you pull the covers over your head. So you get less light. So you feel more depressed. So you feel even less like getting up. Whereas if you force yourself to get up, then push yourself to do all these things, then you can feel much, much better.

• 15:19Speaker 05

  And feeling much, much better is the goal.

• 15:23Speaker 05

  Takeaway five is to reduce stress. You may want to decorate a room with bright colors and photographs that make you smile. You may want to see a therapist and talk through how you feel. You may want to try meditation. Rosenthal says the effects of practicing meditation and SAD haven't been fully studied yet, but he believes it can help.

• 15:44Speaker 06

  What meditation does is it de-stresses you.

• 15:49Speaker 05

  He says seasonal affective disorder has three main causes. There's a genetic component, a lack of light component, and there's stress.

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  Stress is going to bring out the symptoms because if you didn't have anything you had to get up and do, and you could lie around, it wouldn't emerge in such a symptomatic way. But it's when you've got things to do and you're feeling down and not thinking straight and not feeling effective, that's when you can really feel most depressed. So anything that reduces stress, which meditation can do, can make a better adjustment to the winter.

• 16:30Speaker 05

  Another thing you can do is make pleasurable plans, maybe painting or dancing or meeting a friend. Because sometimes when you plan to do something enjoyable and you make yourself go through with it, in spite of everything, you find yourself having a wonderful time. Maya says she doesn't wait for occasions like a birthday or holidays to do something special.

• 16:53Speaker 02

  I think as people, I know for myself at least, I spend so much time waiting for other people to give me permission to be excited about things. And I think that the moment where we can kind of choose to make our own calendars and schedule something that genuinely will bring us joy is, is a really big changing point.

• 17:13Speaker 05

  She celebrates the little things.

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  And so I try and make myself have things to look forward to, whether it's like baking a pie on the weekend or drinking a cup of tea every single day. And that fuels me a little bit more and feeds me as a person when I'm not able to go outside and feel fed by the world.

• 17:31Speaker 05

  For Maya, an important form of self-care is songwriting. And a few years ago, she released Seasonal Depression as MXM Tune.

• 17:40Speaker 07

  I just don't see a whole lot of sun. And lately, I just can't seem to have any fun.

• 17:51Speaker 05

  She also accepts that for her, winter will never feel like summer.

• 17:56Speaker 02

  I think that's something that I've also reminded myself is that it's just an indication that the year is passing by and that's okay. And reminding yourself that everything is cyclical and, you know, it's bad right now, but it will be good in the future.

• 18:09Speaker 07

  Seasonal depression's got me sleeping off the days. And I've wasted all my time feeling great.

• 18:20Speaker 05

  We haven't talked about medications, mostly because, well, we're not doctors. But Dr. Rosenthal, who is, says a lot of people do really well following these simple measures. But if you don't find yourself feeling better or SAD is interfering with your personal relationships or work, he says medication can be very effective. Keep in mind, none of this will make the disorder go away. But as Rosenthal puts it.

• 18:47Speaker 06

  It's not a cure, but it's like if you do all the things I've said, then sometimes the SAD dies of neglect.

• 19:10Speaker 01

  Reporter Kavitha Cardoza. This episode of Life Kit was produced by Andy Tagle. Our digital editor is Malika Gharib and our visuals editor is CJ Rikalan. Megan Kane is our senior supervising editor and Lauren Gonzalez is our executive producer. Our production team also includes Claire Marie Schneider, Margaret Sorino, and Sylvie Douglas. Engineering support comes from Sina LaFredo. I'm Marielle Segarra. Thanks for listening.

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