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Category Archives: SAD
Are you a SAD sufferer and don’t know it?
It’s coming to that time of year again when for many people it can become more and more difficult to get out of bed in the morning and when energy levels start to dip dramatically.
It’s a time when some people find that their mood becomes low and depression sets in, and their libido flies out the window.
They may experience this every winter only to find that it all changes and they get back to normal again in springtime when the days get noticeably longer.
What we’re talking about here is SAD or Seasonal Affective Disorder, a form of winter blues caused by the changing seasons and the lack of light during winter, which means that SAD predominantly affects people living in the northern hemisphere.
The symptoms of SAD can include sleep problems, overeating and weight gain, depression, lack of energy, loss of libido, relationship problems and much more.
The thing is, SAD is a type of depression and as such is considered a mental health problem. Many people suffering from SAD are unaware that what they are experiencing is the effects of a depressive illness which can be helped. They are not lazy as some people actually believe.
Susana Adame, a long term SAD sufferer who wasn’t diagnosed until she was in her 30’s, recently wrote about stigma and SAD in the Guardian newspaper.
“Although Sad is an illness that major health organisations recognise, far too many people go undiagnosed” she said.
“There are many reasons for this, but perhaps the biggest are wrapped around the social stigma that is so intimately connected to depression.
“Depression, despite decades of work by awareness organisations, still has ‘laziness’ associated with it. Some think that if you’d just change your point of view, get out for a walk, eat properly, talk with friends, not isolate yourself, get back to work etc – you’d feel better. Not so.”
One treatment for SAD that is proving to be particularly helpful is the use of special light boxes to help replace the natural bright light that is lacking during the winter.
It involves placing the light box in a position where the light from the box can reach your eyes, you don’t have to sit and stare directly at it. Just 30 minutes a day can be enough to alleviate the symptoms of SAD.
If you think you suffer from SAD speak to your doctor who will be able to give you more information.
“Happy Chair” in Scotland offers hope to SAD sufferers
It’s coming to that time of year again when many people in the northern hemisphere suffer from a type of depression known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) or the Winter Blues.
Now a student from a university in Scotland, a country that has a lot of SAD sufferers because of the large number of long dark winter days, has developed a “happy chair” in order to help people suffering from winter depression.
Chuang, Meng Jung decided to develop the chair which can offer light therapy to SAD sufferers, after noticing how the weather and the amount of light there was in Scotland was so different to what it was in her native country Taiwan.
“Taiwan has very hot weather and we tend to cover up in the summertime. Here it is different. You love the sunshine and love to sunbathe” the Scotsman newspaper reported Chuang as saying.
“In Taiwan, during the summer we use umbrellas to cover our bodies. It was interesting for me. I wanted to know what local people thought about the weather here.”
Chuang carried out her own research and discovered that many people in Scotland are suffering from the symptoms of SAD.
“In Taiwan we don’t have this problem” she said.
“So I decided to focus on this condition because up to half a million people are thought to experience that problem.”
Her research also revealed that women were twice as likely to suffer from SAD as men and that 20 percent of women experienced symptoms of depression during pregnancy.
The prototype of Chuang’s “Revive” chair, which emits the recommended daily dose of light and at the same strength as other light therapy equipment, is going on display at Edinburgh College of Art where she is currently a student.
“The chair is touch sensitive, the lights come on for the recommended daily dose of 30 minutes, turning back to white light after this time so the user knows they’ve had their ‘dose’,” said Chuang.
During the course of her research she discovered that light can be an effective therapy for SAD sufferers but those who wanted it often had to pay out a lot of money for their own equipment. She is hoping that her chair will be able to go into full production.
She suggests that to cut down on the costs her chair could also be used in doctors’ surgeries and clinics and rented out by the hour.
