5 ways to reverse SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder)

Seasonal Affective Disorder: What You Should Know

The bright lights of the holiday season aren’t just for decoration; they can also help regulate your mood.

In late fall and winter, shorter daylight hours leave many people with little to no sun exposure, signaling the brain to create too much of the sleep-regulating hormone melatonin.

This overproduction of melatonin leads to seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a mood disorder that affects an estimated 10 to 20 percent of the population. 

SAD Differs from Depression

Major depression is a disease in which your brain’s pleasure responses are broken. You may have a loss of appetite, fatigue, trouble sleeping and feelings of hopelessness. Depressed people often have a harder time managing their symptoms in the winter. But when depressive symptoms are only affecting you in the winter, it’s considered seasonal affective disorder (SAD). 

SAD Affects Men and Women Equally

Historically, researchers have considered women to be more likely to experience seasonal depression. But psychiatrists are increasingly finding that’s not the case. “The classic crying and melancholic depression is more the norm of expression in women. But men express things differently, showing depression with more irritability, anger or frustration,” said Dr. Andrew Angelino, director of psychiatry at Howard County General Hospital.

Ways to Reverse SAD

If you can’t get outside during daylight hours, there are ways to help reverse your body’s creation of too much melatonin.

“If you find that you’re prone to getting the blahs in the winter months or you know you have depression and are taking your medicine, you can also get a light box,” says Dr. Angelino.

Absorbing natural, full-spectrum light regulates hormones in the brain, and helps keep your moods stabilize. In addition to obtaining a light box, Dr. Angelino recommends these five tips to help chase away the seasonal blues:

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   1. Keep your holiday expectations realistic. Don’t let your hopes for perfection spoil your holiday spirit. Learn how to embrace things as good enough, like food, company and gifts.
       
   2. Practice wellness. A daily routine of at least 7 hours of sleep, a 30-minute exercise routine and limiting your alcohol intake can go a long way in fighting the blues.
       
   3. Stand in the sun. Take a break from your desk. At least 15-30 minutes of sunlight, especially in the early morning, helps to regulate your internal clock.
       
   4. Cultivate some winter hobbies. The chilly weather may freeze your weekend gardening plans but it may be the best time to catch up on your reading list or tackle a new project in the house. Adjust your leisure activities to fit the seasons.
       
   5. See a doctor if natural interventions are not successful. If your symptoms are regularly interfering with your everyday life, make an appointment with your doctor. ---Source: Johns Hopkins Medicine

Heterosexism and the holidays

Thanksgiving marks the start of the trifecta of holidays that spike anxiety in LGBT youth and adults of all ages. In this excerpt from Healing the Brain, we look at the invisible but all-too-real phenomenon of heterosexism, the feeling of gay people that they must give deference to a straight-majority culture.

Despite, or in some cases because of social progress in marriage equality and other matters, pervasiveness of alienation in the lives of the current generation of gay youth is well established. Nevertheless, little is definitively known about the strategies these youth use to cope with stigma and discrimination based on their sexual minority status. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth face an array of daunting challenges in addition to many of the developmental stressors facing straight teens.

One of the most difficult stressors gay youth face is heterosexism. This term describes the acculturated and pervasive (intentional or non-intentional) concept that denies, denigrates, and stigmatizes any non-heterosexual form of behavior, identity, relationship, or community. The experience of being stigmatized is at the root of a range of health problems faced by sexual minority adolescents including increased depression, suicide risk, and other mental health disorders. Few researchers have examined the emotional consequences of day-to-day encounters with heterosexism, but many have noted the challenge of maintaining a positive sense of self in the face of chronic negative feedback based in heterosexist attitudes. Recent research has revealed elevated levels of social anxiety in sexual minority adolescents, as well as associations between social anxiety and increased risky sexual behavior.

Forms of heterosexist experiences vary widely, ranging from casual anti-gay remarks to severe physical violence or total social exclusion. Youth encounter heterosexism in diverse settings, including home, school, church, parks, and on the street. Sources of heterosexism were equally wide-ranging, including family members, schoolmates, friends, and religious leaders.

Few researchers have examined the emotional consequences of day-to-day encounters with heterosexism.

Heteroterosexist attitudes by family appeared to be especially stressful for gay youth, in part due to these youths’ emotional and financial dependence on their families. The holiday season, the period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, accounts for many family disruptions over the issue of a child’s sexulity. Youth see this period and the typical gatherings of their nuclear family as an opportunity to begin talking about their true selves. Not coincidentally, this time of year is when the highest incidents of family disruptions occur. Large cities such as San Francisco and New York see an influx of gay youth fleeing their homes and ultimately seeking social services. Relatedly, when television covers an LGBT matter, be it marriage equality or the trauma of the Orlando, FL mass killing at a gay bar, conflicts ensue in families. In 2011, when New York State passed marriage equality, the Ali Forney Center of New York reported a 40 per cent increase in drop-in rates at its youth shelter in New York.

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LGBT community and holidays: Stress on steroids, post-Trump

The holiday season brings stresses for everyone and for gay youth, in particular. This year in particular, gay youth and adults face a daunting task at the family dinner table. Here is an excerpt from our new book, Healing the Brain.

Few researchers have examined the emotional consequences of day-to-day encounters with heterosexism.

Heteroterosexist attitudes by family appeared to be especially stressful for gay youth, in part due to these youths’ emotional and financial dependence on their families. The holiday season, the period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, accounts for many family disruptions over the issue of a child’s sexulity. Youth see this period and the typical gatherings of their nuclear family as an opportunity to begin talking about their true selves. Not coincidentally, this time of year is when the highest incidents of family disruptions occur. Large cities such as San Francisco and New York see an influx of gay youth fleeing their homes and ultimately seeking social services. Relatedly, when television covers an LGBT matter, be it marriage equality or the trauma of the Orlando, FL mass killing at a gay bar, conflicts ensue in families. In 2011, when New York State passed marriage equality, the Ali Forney Center of New York reported a 40 per cent increase in drop-in rates at its youth shelter in New York.

Coping Strategies for Gay Youth

Obtaining information and support through the Internet

For many youth, the Internet served as a means of locating gay-affirmative support that might otherwise have been difficult to obtain. One individual posted poetry about his experiences on a website and received feedback that helped him to increase his sense of self-esteem and reduce feelings of isolation. For this youth, the process of writing poetry had other benefits as well, including cognitively reframing his predicament and venting.

Setting boundaries

A common example of such a strategy involved avoiding individuals who expressed heterosexist attitudes. Youth might stop talking to such a person, or take other active measures to avoid having to encounter them, even if they had formerly been friends.

Some youth express the importance of avoiding heterosexist people, though such strategies could leave them vulnerable to additional psychological, physical and material challenges. For example, leaving home without obtaining alternative sources of support appeared to be a particularly risky means of coping.

Adam left his small-town home for Los Angeles due to pervasive heterosexism and anti-gay violence he encountered there. He left with only enough money for train fare and a few essential items, a situation that might have been precarious had he not been able to rely on an aunt living in Los Angeles. He moved in with her and greatly appreciated her support, saying “At least I have one family member that was behind me. But that was the only one.” Another youth, who left home for similar reasons had no money whatsoever, but was able to earn income as a dancer in bars. A third respondent, whose brother regularly beat him and called him a “fag,” coped by living at friends’ homes most of the time.

Passing by telling half-truths

When youth could not avoid the topics that might lead to exposure of their sexual orientation, they often hid their sexual orientation by a careful use of half-truths. For these youth, passing often involved steering a middle course between overt lying and social or familial rejection.

Passing by keeping a low profile in heterosexist environments

Gay people often encounter heterosexist messages in religious settings. Rather than avoid such settings entirely, many respondents continue to attend church, while remaining closeted in that particular environment. In this way, respondents felt they were able to derive benefits from such experiences in spite of hearing heterosexist messages. This was explained by one respondent, who said that he continued to attend church in spite of his discomfort because he valued his relationship with God. Another respondent utilized passing to minimize the embarrassment he and a gay friend would otherwise experience in church when straight men stared at their stereotypically gay attire.

Covering sexual orientation

Some youth who had fully disclosed their sexual orientation nevertheless adopted strategies to minimize its obviousness. Respondents whose families discouraged them from disclosing their sexual orientation to others sometimes used covering as a compromise between their families’ wishes and their own. The following respondent recounts an argument in which his parents insisted that he keep his sexual orientation a secret at school.

Listening selectively in stigmatizing environments

Youth often use attentional deployment strategies in religious settings, sometimes by simply ignoring anti-gay messages when they were expressed in church. In order to ignore such heterosexist messages, youth first had to listen to and critically evaluate the ideas they were hearing.

Ignoring provocations

LGBT youth who encounter prejudicial statements directed at them often opted to ignore them. The following respondent reported that when he was younger his mother and sister often said things to him that made him “not feel good about myself”. He described that he “used to go so crazy, I yelled at them... like knocked over the TV and stereo, knocked over the whole house.” As he got older, he learned to ignore provocations and this helped him to avoid yelling and acting out violently at home. He also stated that he usually uses a similar strategy when encountering prejudice in public settings.

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