SAD Season: What causes Winter Depression?
SAD is a serious drop in mood and ability to live life when the weather cools. But what causes it?
SAD is also called winter depression [1], and a bunch of other informal names. The condition itself gets much less attention than other types of depression, since it doesn’t tend to last as long and can be curable with all those ignorant things people love suggesting to someone with clinical depression.
“Go for a bike ride. Get some sunlight. See some friends, go have a good laugh. Cheer yourself up.” Generally, these things actually make decent treatments for SAD. When your field (or condition) is serious, long-term depression, it’s easy not to take SAD seriously.
But SAD can be devastating to a life that was completely together a week ago, and requires you to keep it together at a normal pace.
Symptoms can be present for almost half of the year, and it affects a decent chunk of people. In the U.S., for example, it’s anywhere up to 20% of the population. It’s uncommon but normal to find yourself in hospital with SAD (around 6% of cases hospitalised) [2].
There are a few possible causes for SAD, and almost all correlate with less sunlight.
SAD or not, getting less sunlight will have a few effects on your mental health:
- The lack of vitamins will affect mood. D and E vitamins from natural sunlight lift you up, emotionally and physically. You need them to grow and replenish different parts of your body.
- Hormonal regulation. Sunlight tells your brain chemicals when to fire off and for how long. A good amount of sunlight will get your serotonin going all day. This is an essential feel-good chemical that keeps you functioning. When it’s out of whack, you become sluggish, unhappy and can even hallucinate or have delusions. It’s that serious.
- Sleep cycles. This is a different kind of hormonal regulation. Your body knows when to get tired and when to feel awake based on the amount of blue light around it. At daytime the blue light comes out and you get a burst of motivating chemicals. If you’re well rested, getting up feels good. At night when the blue light goes away, your motivation fades and you relax into sleep. But if you’re getting not much sun and a lot of screen time, it’s natural to become confused and insomniac. The natural reaction to having screens and artificial light around us constantly is to always feel tired, especially if you’re not getting outside.
Melatonin, the brain chemical that tells you to sleep, might be another one. Certain people pump out more melatonin when the weather starts to die down for the year. Bright lights can help regulate your melatonin, but it may not necessarily cure the depression [3].
There’s a correlation with genetics. If you have the right DNA, your melatonin may have trouble adjusting to a shortened day. Some of the implicated genes also correlate to neurodiverse conditions like autism and schizophrenia. There’s no guarantee that these conditions go together with SAD, but we have found them together in mice [4].
Then there are the peripheral causes:
- Weight gain. SAD will cause you to crave carbohydrates, because being tired and grumpy causes the body to suck up more glucose (your body takes the carbs you put in it and breaks it down into this sugary fuel). You want burgers and ice cream when you’re sad because you’re low on those nutrients. But the side effect of junk food is junk health, if you have too much. And …
- A low mood can deplete your willpower. We’re still figuring out how willpower works, but the prevailing theories are basically spoon theory — you have a finite amount, then you have to rest. If you’re badly rested, your willpower is already low.
Those are a lot of possible causes. But it’s alright.
Even though nothing is certain, it’s a real help to know the signs and what might lead you into the SAD pit. When you recognise the symptoms, you can act — and action is a blessing.
Most people with depression can’t just snap out of it, pull themselves up and slowly get better over a few days. But the solutions to SAD do help treat depression. Even if your old sense of joy doesn’t fade right back in when you get outside or hear a joke, these things are worth your time. Your life and the people who depend on you need you to keep going, to care for your life.
Keep going. If you’re still here, you’re doing fine.
Was this useful? Want more? Disspoken got you:
5 ways to fight the SAD season
They said I’d never talk. Now they pay me to do it.
Sources:
[1] SAD at Britain’s NHS website
[2] SAD figures from Psychology Today
