What is Seasonal Affective Disorder and What You Can Do to Stop It

Seasonal Affective Disorder, also known as SAD is a form of depression that affects 10 million Americans each year. It is also known as a more intense version of the winter blues that causes sadness, lack of energy, weight gain and an increased need for sleep. Most of the people that suffer from this problem are women and the typical age seems to be in the 30's and it usually happens in the Fall and Winter months.. There are many things you can do to help alleviate these symptoms from using light therapy, making changes to your home like adding skylights or changing your Houston blinds or your Houston shades to filter in more light to using various forms of medications as well as other tips.

The biggest thing that seems to affect people with this seasonal affective disorder is the decrease in light from cloudier weather to shorter daylights during the winter months. Some people may live in a very sunny place like Colorado where the sun shines for over 300 days a year and never have the problem and then they move to Ohio where the winters are gray and not much sun shines for many months and they all of the sudden find themselves suffering from sadness and lethargy. The light seems to be the key factor to these symptoms.

In order to address the problem of light with those who suffer from SAD, light therapy has been used to treat these symptoms. There are a few ways to get this light to a person. One way is by using a light box. This is a device that mimics natural sunlight and should be used for 30 minutes everyday to help alleviate some symptoms. The downside to a light box is that they cost between $250-500 and is often not covered by insurance.

Another option to get more light is to try to go outside for an hour everyday. Even on a cloudy day, the natural light is about the same as a light box and will improve your symptoms. Exercise also helps alleviate the depression so if you could combine the two and take a brisk walk for an hour everyday you may feel better. If those do not seem to help, then perhaps medicine prescribed by your doctor that levels off moods or increases the serotonin in your brain could help like Lithium or Zoloft. This should only be done after seeing a psychiatrist for your symptoms.

Another way to help your symptoms from SAD is to make some changes to your home to let some more light in to improve your mood. If you have very small windows and dark rooms, try putting in larger windows or even adding skylights to let more natural light into the room. Another thing would be to change your window treatments to blinds or shades that can be completely opened to allow more light in as well. These small changes to your home can make a huge difference in allowing more natural light into your home.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?What-is-Seasonal-Affective-Disorder-and-What-You-Can-Do-to-Stop-It&id=2787285
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