Feeling SAD? How to identify, handle seasonal depression

MELANIE WASSER | UNSPLASH

Season Affective Disorder, or SAD, causes depression based on season determinants.

It’s common to feel down after the holidays.

Many people suffer from what is called Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, which causes depression based on seasonal determinants.

Novant Health psychotherapist and clinical social worker Jaren Doby has tips on how to combat seasonal depression as well as triggers to look for.

“Seasonal affective disorder… is in relation to more of the temporal,” Doby said. “Temperature change as it relates to folks experiencing those depressive related symptoms during those particular changes. It is definitely more common during winter months, but it is something that happens or has been recorded to happen during summer months as well. So, it is more prevalent during [the winter] timeframe. What folks need to understand is that this is very much related to temperature.”

According to the American Psychiatric Association, as many as 9% of all adults worldwide suffer from SAD and 5-10% of Americans, with higher rates in individuals located at higher latitudes. Women are also more susceptible than men.

Doby says SAD is often misunderstood. People often think their depression is caused by life events or circumstances that make them depressed before or after the holidays.

“It is very much so in relation to temperature,” he said. “Not more so, which is a common confusion that we see here, and folks get it kind of misconstrued where it’s like, ‘Hey, I had a family member that passed away, and I’m sad every Christmas.’ Or ‘This time of year, my job just gets a little bit more stressful. This is why I'm a little bit more depressed.’ It's less in relation to the stressor, or trigger, and the primary trigger is the change in season with the change in temperature.”

Doby says understanding triggers that cause SAD is important, because if you can eliminate what adds to the affects the weather is having on your mental state, it can be dealt with.

“It's just about being able to take an opportunity, at least in my line of work, to prepare for these things the best way that we can,” he said. “What is it that causes you to feel this way around this time frame? And really being able to process that through thoroughly, you don’t have to always do that with a therapist. You can do that one-on-one with yourself by writing that down or being able to have a discussion with somebody that you love and trust. One of the supports is that you have the right to kind of talk those things through. But once you're able to get to the trigger, the real work has already begun by being able to flesh that out.”

Experiences differ among people, so there is no single way to cope with SAD. But once you detect the problem, eliminating it can help ease the stress that weather and seasonal determinants already causing.
Doby said self-study is needed during the winter. If you’re in a depressed state, pay attention to day-to-day changes because they can be adding to the issue.

“It’s really about making sure that you remain a student of yourself,” Doby said, “or being mindful of the observations of others that love us that have made their own observations as to any changes that we may or may have noticed. We can't leave a stone unturned when it comes down to changes.”

Changes can be anything from appetite, sleep patterns or disturbance, increased or decreased energy levels or change in mood. It is important to understand that you aren’t alone. SAD is more common than many think, so the goal should be to feel empowered to discuss it.

“It’s important to make sure that we all understand that you’re not on an island by yourself and your experiences,” Doby said. “You truly are not. And I don't say that within a realm of, ‘oh, let me lump you in with everyone else, or to make it not significant.’ No, I really, truly mean that.  I want to normalize this to the point in which you don’t feel like you are isolated, that you are alone.”

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