Things You Can Do To Eliminate The Symptoms For Seasonal Affective Disorder
Seasonal Affective Disorder, also referred to as SAD is a form of depression that affects 10 million Americans every Winter . It is described as a higher level of the winter blues that causes sadness, lack of energy, cravings for sweets and an increased need for sleep . Most of the people that suffer from this problem are women and the usual age tends to be in the 30′s and it typically occurs in the Fall and Winter months.. There are several things you can do to help alleviate these symptoms from having light therapy, doing changes to your home such as adding skylights or changing your Houston blinds or your Houston shades to filter in more light to using different types of medications as well as other suggestions .
The biggest thing that seems to affect people with this SAD is the decrease in light from cloudier weather to shorter daylights during the winter months . Some people may live in a very sunny place like Colorado where the sun shines for over 300 days a year and never have any symptoms and then they move to Ohio where the winters are gray and not much sun shines for a long time and they all of the sudden find themselves strugling with sadness and lethargy. The light seems to be the key factor to these issues .
In order to solve the problem of light with those who struggle with SAD , light therapy has been used to treat these symptoms. There are a few ways to get this light to a person. One way is by using a light box. This is a device that mimics natural sunlight and should be used for 30 minutes everyday to help alleviate some symptoms. The downside to a light box is that they are expensive costing between $250-500 and is usually not covered by insurance.
Another option to get more light is to try to go outside for an hour each day . Even on a cloudy day, the natural light is about equal to a light box and will improve your symptoms . Exercise also helps alleviate the depression so if you could combine both and take a brisk walk for an hour everyday you may feel improvement . If those methods don’t appear to help, then perhaps medicine prescribed by your doctor that evens out the depression or mania or raises the level of the serotonin in your brain could help such as Lithium or Zoloft. This should only be taken follwoing a visit to a psychiatrist for your symptoms .
Another method to reduce your symptoms from SAD is to make some changes to your home to let some more light in to enhance your mood. If you have very small windows and dark rooms, try putting in larger windows or even putting in skylights to let more natural light into the room . Another thing may be to change your window treatments using blinds or shades that can be completely opened to allow more light in as well . These small changes to your home may make a huge difference in allowing more natural light into your house .
Drapery Hardware | Jane | 24 August 2009 |
