Seasonal Depression is the latest form of seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Its symptoms include reduced motivation and low mood that come and go as the season changes. Some people experience seasonal depression in spring, others feel it during cold days of the year. They need some medical treatments and remedies to lessen the severity of symptoms. 

Most people experience seasonal depression symptoms in the winter and fall but new research has shown that some cases have also been observed where spring season was the cause of seasonal affective disorder. Studies revealed that the summer season also brings depressive mood disorder in some people. This condition is not linked with one season. Anyone can suffer from SAD in any season.

Keep on reading the article so that you may learn more about  symptoms, causes and medical treatments of Seasonal Depression. 

What Seasonal Depression Feels Like?

According to research, seasonal depression has been recognized as a major depressive disorder (MDD) that affects the people according to a seasonal pattern. Its symptoms have close resemblance to the symptoms of major depressive disorder. But sometimes, its symptoms do not show in the exact same way for everyone. Therefore, people get confused if they have MDD or SAD.

As soon as the days shorten and nights lengthen and winter approaches, you might notice that:

• You’re losing interest in your usual activities.
• Feeling aggression or anger.
• Experiencing thoughts of suicide, death or dying.
• Experiencing a low mood, with a constant feeling of hopelessness and sadness.
• Feeling changes in energy levels lie restlessness and lethargy.
• Feeling trouble while trying to concentrate or remember any information.
• Experiencing sudden weight loss.
• Feeling it difficult to find motivation to do your regular routine activities.
• Experiencing unusual irritability or agitation.
• Experiencing loss of appetite.
• Going through sleep troubles like insomnia.

If one or more than one signs are obvious in your routine. There may be a risk for developing seasonal depression or SAD.

Symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)?

It is obvious from several studies and researches that seasonal depression belongs to seasonal affective disorder. It is the molded form of SAD. Therefore, it is a reality that symptoms of both closely resemble each other. However the SAD symptoms more commonly appear near late fall or early winter and going to an end when spring approaches but the recent studies have declared that the seasonal depression is not only linked with winter or fall. It can affect you in any season like summer or spring. But you may not experience the symptoms throughout the year because as a person just one season can always affect your mood. It may be winter, summer, spring or fall.

However, studies show that SAD can be categorized into two types:

1. Summer Pattern SAD: It occurs in just 10-15% of cases.
2. Winter Patter SAD: It occurs in more than 90% cases. 

Symptoms of both types of seasonal depression last four to 4 months and commonly observed as:

• Prolonged depression.
• Lack of energy.
• Overwhelmed thoughts about suicide.
• Sleep issues.
• Concentrating problems.

But depression caused by winter season also has some additional indications including:

• Abrupt weight gain.
• Daytime sleepiness.
• Persistent fatigue.
• Overeating.
• Lack of interest in social activities.

On the other hand, summer pattern depression includes:

• Violence.
• Lack of appetite.
• Agitation.
• Weight loss.
• Restlessness.
• Difficulty sleeping.

Why Seasonal Depression Happens?

Winter pattern depression  is more common than summer pattern depression. Experts don’t know the exact causes of seasonal depression. But some possible reasons explained through research are:

Clod and Decreased Flight

If you can’t handle colds well, cold days of the year may bring discomfort for you, especially when you have to spend more time without daylight. Extreme cold and darkness could leave you feeling low and hopeless. This factor increases the symptoms of restlessness and excessive sleepiness. Therefore, it is thought that excessive cold and blockage of day light causes disruption in your circadian rhythm and throws off your sleep-wake cycle. You can’t decide how much sleep is enough for you that ultimately ruins your overall health and well-being.

Low light intensity and lack of daylight makes your brain  lazy making it difficult to be alert when you need to be active.

Imbalance in Brain Hormones

A number of hormones known as neurotransmitters are reduced in your brain that target different areas or organs if your buddy performs their assigned jobs. Some of these hormones work to boost your mood, emotions. But the excess or lack of these hormones can harm your internal functions. The abrupt increase or decrease of some mood -related neurotransmitters actually cause disturbances in your mental health.

According to research, winter pattern depression is caused due to a great drop in the production of serotonin hormone, the hormone that came into existence after exposure to daylight. On the other hand, cold weather and lack of natural light causes an increase in the production of melatonin leading to make you feel more lethargic and tired than usual.

This is the time when you need some daylight and warmth while approaching to spring season because:

The increase in natural light exposure can help your body to decrease the production of melatonin, so that you may control your daytime sleepiness and tiredness. As increased sleepiness usually contributes to worsening of depression symptoms.

Meanwhile, exposure to natural light impacts your serotonin production that also helps boost your mood. Because the sunnier days are linked to a happy mood. Too much cold contributes to mental health concerns such as social anxiety disorder and depressive disorder.

If these changes particularly hit your body and mind, the lack of sleep and excess of serotonin can increase the feelings of irritability, low mood and restlessness.

Seasonal Allergies

Changes in your mood often lead to feelings of depression and weather conditions or seasonal effects play a crucial role in changes in your mood. One of the main impacts of seasonal changes is seasonal allergic reactions that cause depression in people. 

Studies have shown that people who are affected by some seasonal allergies are more likely to develop symptoms of depression than those who have not been affected by allergies. For example, if you have a pollen allergy, you may experience depressive mood order during the pollen season. 

Moreover, seasonal allergies also affect your sleep cycle that directly contribute to depression.

Risk Factors

If you’re living in a region of the world where winter nights are longer due to higher altitude and very less natural light reaches there, you’re more likely to develop seasonal depression symptoms. For example, people living in Alaska and Canada have higher risk to develop symptoms of seasonal depression than those who live in sunnier countries like Florida.

In addition, SAD occurs more frequently and easily in women than men. Younger people around the age of 18 to 25 have higher risk of developing SAD symptoms than the adults. Studies also reveal that people with family history of SAD or other neurological or psychological disorders are at greater risk of developing the condition.

Moreover, people suffering from other mental health conditions like bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder or Alzheimer’s disease are more likely to develop SAD symptoms.

Diagnosis of SAD

At first, your symptoms and type of occurrence of symptoms help the doctors to evaluate the severity of the condition. 

According to stooges of health sciences, the diagnosis of seasonal depression requires the following:

• Symptoms of depression.
• Occurrence of depressive episodes frequently.
• Episodes occurring only during a specific season for at least three consecutive years.

However, experiencing only minor mood changes in any season doesn’t confirm the occurrence of SAD. Sometimes, temporary mood changes in a season also happen due to sub-syndromal seasonal affective disorder. But if your mood swings and depression symptoms continue past the change in the season, your diagnosis may dovetail towards other dilemmas of mental health conditions like major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder.

How to Manage Seasonal Depression?

Here are some strategies to help ease the symptoms of SAD in any season.

Practice Good Sleep Hygiene

Disrupted sleep patterns and disturbed sleep-wake cycles usually lead to occurring depression symptoms. The first thing to manage the seasonal depression is to maintain a good sleep cycle with practicing good sleep hygiene. Try to keep the temperature of your room at standard temperature according to the season. In winter it should be warm with some amount of natural night while in summer it must be cool, dark and breathable. Following a fortune for getting up and gluing to bed can also help you improve the symptoms of SAD.

Incorporate Physical Activity to Your Routine

Excuse or physical activity can help relieve your stress and make your nerves and muscles relax. It is an effective way to get rid of anxiety and stress. In winter, try to practice indoor physical activities while in summer or spring swimming exercises can help you feel relaxed. Try to stick to a gym routine of early morning and evening workouts.

Meditation and Journaling

Your unwanted difficult emotions cause depression symptoms. Meditation helps you identify and accept these negative energies including depression.

Eat a Balanced Diet

If you’re experiencing a depression  phase, your eating routine will surely get disturbed.. You may not feel hunger when you’re experiencing depression. This means when you don’t get the right amount of nutrients, you become irritable. 

Therefore, experts suggested that eating a balanced diet can relieve depression symptoms. However, a regular lack of appetite is not good for health. If you’re not feeling hungry or appetite for a week consecutively, speak with your doctor for other ways to consume essential nutrients in the right amounts.

Treatment for Seasonal Depression

Depression, no matter which type it belongs to, always needs support from a mental health professional. Different coping strategies can help to ease the symptoms but none of them can give a long term relief.

So try to find out a professional support can relieve you if:

• You’re feeling depression or other mood disorders that have lasted for more than 15 days because it may be a sign of major depressive disorder.
• You are feeling thoughts of suicide or self-harm.
• You’re experiencing symptoms that begin to disturb your routine activities and personal relations.
• Your symptoms are getting worse over time.
• You’re feeling difficulty regulating your emotions such as sadness, aggression or worry.

The occurrence of these signs is the indication that you need to contact a mental health specialist. Speak with your doctor so that they can provide you with suggestions about how to treat the condition as soon as possible.

Therapy

Sometimes, doctors recommend specific therapy to lessen the severity of SAD symptoms. For example cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the effective therapy to learn how to identify and address unwanted thoughts and behavior patterns that are causing depression.

CBT for seasonal depression teaches you the techniques about how to behave actively when you need to create a routine of enjoyable activities and positive habits.

Medication

In most cases medication proves the best option for treating seasonal depression. Some psychiatrists also tend to prescribe antidepressants to relieve the symptoms. But before taking these medications, talk to your doctor about the side effects that may develop after taking such medications.

Conclusion

Seasonal depression can occur in any season but it mostly happens in winter, fall or early spring. Its symptoms include irritability, insomnia, excessive sleepiness, tiredness, changes in energy and mood.

The exact cause is unclear till the date but after some research, experts agreed to point that SAD, the intensity of natural light and warmth, cold and imbalance in the brain’s neurotransmitters are the causes of the condition. 

You can take some steps to help ease the symptoms, such as practicing good sleep hygiene, following a set routine for maintaining a regular sleep cycle, eating a balanced diet along with some physical activity. But if the symptoms remain persistent, talk to your doctor to get guidance about other managing strategies like therapy or medication.