Debunking the Winter Depression Myth: The Truth Behind Seasonal Affective Disorder
Scientist’s and researchers have already debunked the myth that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance, so why do we, as a society, still hold on to the idea that winter depression, seasonal depression, or seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is an unfortunate illness that we fear?
SAD is identified as a form of depression caused by disturbances of hormonal rhythms sensitive to daylight, primarily melatonin. And when this message is passed down or endorsed by the largest names in the industry, by our doctors, by other providers, why wouldn’t we accept the message?
Often times, we may feel a sense of comfort by naming how we feel and assuming it is something of diagnostic criteria – because our society has a quick fix for everything! If you have seasonal depression, it’s a great excuse for slowing down during the winter months, staying in, doing less. Moreover, we can take a happy pill that helps make the uncomfortable feelings of depression a little more manageable. Intense exposure to artificial light is also advocated as a source for treatment and, guess what? There’s a gadget for that.
So, while this theory can feel reassuring and validating, it’s also keeping us stuck in a very hopeless and helpless cycle.
Picture this, you wake up in the morning and it’s cold and dark. You decide to stay snuggled up in your bed for a little longer and hit that snooze button. When you do finally force yourself out of bed, it’s uncomfortable and likely that, even subconsciously, you’re shaming yourself for not just getting up and moving. After all, rest is lazy, right?? (Not “right”, but different blog for a different day!). You drive in to work and it’s still dark – gross. It’s cold outside so the hot drinks are flowing. Fast-forward to lunch time. We are chock full of caffeine but it’s still cold, wet and windy outside – gross. So you stay in for lunch. Queue the 2:00 sugar-crash feeling of sluggishness and fatigue (did you know that as little as 2 minutes of movement after lunch can help lower your blood sugar and reduce the sugar crash feeling?) So, now we’re tired and just ready to get home. You drive home and it’s dark – gross. The day felt long and tiring so you decide to stay in. Watch some tv, scroll on your phone, eat, and go to bed.
Sound familiar?
Is it any wonder that we feel so crap during the long, cold winter?
According to the NHS, here are the symptoms of SAD:
-a persistent low mood
-a loss of pleasure or interest in normal everyday activities
irritability
-feelings of despair, guilt and worthlessness
-feeling lethargic (lacking in energy) and sleepy during the day
-sleeping for longer than normal and finding it hard to get up in the morning
-craving carbohydrates and gaining weight
-difficulty concentrating
-decreased sex drive
Makes sense, right? When your days of lethargy turn in to weeks or months of it, then of course you feel this way! The less active we are, the fewer opportunities there are for positive and rewarding things to happen to us. And the fewer rewarding things that happen to us the lower our mood becomes.
Remember the old phrase from math class – correlation does not imply causation? Just because our mood dips in the winter does not imply that the winter is the cause of our mood dip.
Here’s what society thinks about winter depression: it is caused by a hormonal imbalance in the brain- mainly an imbalance of serotonin and melatonin, and a disruption to the circadian rhythm (our internal body clock).
Here’s that the research says: there is no high-quality data that confirms a measurable association between exposure to daylight and psychological well-being, artificially increasing or decreasing serotonin does not induce or reduce depression (drug trials show that antidepressants are barely distinguishable from a placebo when it comes to treating depression), and finally, in a study done in the most extreme polar regions of the sub-arctic population, insomnia was most prevalent in winter, but there were no significant seasonal differences in mental distress (ie, your sleep may be disturbed but it doesn’t significantly affect mental health).
Ultimately, it’s another example of where science and society aren’t singing in tune.
So, what do you do with this information?
First, you stop fearing the onset of winter. You learn skills to manage your relationship with discomfort (cold, wet, gloomy discomfort). You stick to your routines and force yourself to do the things that you know make you feel good, even when you really don’t want to. This approach is called Behavioural Activation (BA) and it is a psychological treatment for depression, winter depression, and SAD with one of the biggest evidence bases to demonstrate how effective it is.
Behavioural activation for depression is about making your life meaningful and pleasurable again, and involves these steps:
1) Learning about the vicious cycle of inactivity > depression > inactivity and understanding that we need to activate ourselves to feel better again
2) Monitoring daily activities to understand the relationships between our activity and our mood
3) Identifying our values and goals (working out what really matters to us)
4) Simple activation (scheduling and carrying out meaningful activities to boost our experiences of pleasure and mastery)
5) Problem-solving any barriers to activation
So, if you are ready to take back control of your mental health and find alternative ways to combat mood challenges, get in touch. You don’t have suffer another hopeless season of loneliness, fatigue, and depression.
All my love,
Devon McGahey, MSW
Good Life Therapy
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References:
Ekers, D., Webster, L., Van Straten, A., Cuijpers, P., Richards, D., & Gilbody, S. (2014). Behavioural activation for depression; an update of meta-analysis of effectiveness and sub group analysis. PloS one, 9(6), e100100.
Kanter, J. W., Manos, R. C., Bowe, W. M., Baruch, D. E., Busch, A. M., &
Rusch, L. C. (2010). What is behavioral activation?: A review of the empirical literature. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(6), 608-620.
Dimidjian, S., Barrera Jr, M., Martell, C., Munoz, R. F., & Lewinsohn, P. M. (2011). The origins and current status of behavioral activation treatments for depression. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 7, 1-38.
Johnsen, M.T., Wynn, R. & Bratlid, T. Is there a negative impact of winter on mental distress and sleeping problems in the subarctic: The Tromsø Study. BMC Psychiatry 12, 225 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-12-225
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/seasonal-affective-disorder
https://www.psychologytools.com/self-help/behavioral-activation/