The Winter Holidays are over - gifts have been exchanged, and the guests have departed. All the pre-Holiday preparation and anticipation and activity have stopped. And what is left? A home empty of guests, too many left-overs, a tree to undecorate, a house to put back into order. And you feel empty somehow - deflated and tired, even tearful.
After you have settled back into your normal routine and activities, you begin to feel better. And life goes on like always.
This describes the Winter Blahs or the Post-Holiday Letdown, which does not need intervention.
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) goes much beyond the picture described above.
Does this picture look familiar? Your life is going along pretty well. You're taking care of work and home and the family, and perhaps even finding a little time for yourself. Then, some time during the Fall, the days begin to grow shorter. You notice that your energy begins to ebb some time between the Fall Equinox and mid-December. It may get to the point where it is a major chore - next to impossible! - to get out of the bed in the morning. You begin to feel irritable and put-upon, and snap at others when they ask you to do something. You have no energy for the coming Holidays. You start to eat a lot of carbohydrates in an effort to keep your energy level up, but it doesn't really help. You just gain weight instead.
You get to the point where all you want to do is eat and sleep. And woe to anyone who bothers you! Sounds a bit like a hibernating bear, doesn't it?
After the Winter Solstice, as the days begin to grow perceptibly longer, you start to feel better. By Spring, you have regained your energy and your interest in the world. And you will do just fine until Fall, when the cycle begins again.
The treatment of choice for SAD is light therapy, specifically full-spectrum light which mimics natural sunlight. You can buy a light box or a dawn simulator for between $100 and $300. Your medical insurance company may pick up part of the tab if your doctor writes a prescription for light therapy.
Use the sun box or dawn simulator first thing in the morning. I don't have SAD per se, but I do have trouble waking up early in the winter, so I use a dawn simulator. A dawn simulator is exactly that - it mimics sunrise, by slowly increasing the light until it reaches full intensity. I just set the timer for 45 minutes before the time I want to wake up.
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