Got the holiday blues? Just blame it on the weather!
I'm a meteorologist, not a doctor, but I have read in several reputable weather publications that some forms of depression are caused by the weather--sort of. See, exposure to the sun causes the body to produce more of a hormone called melatonin, which helps govern our moods. In the winter, the angle of the sun is lower and the length of daylight each day is shorter, so we natually get less exposure to the sun. This causes the body to produce less melatonin. While this may be good in terms of staying young looking or not getting skin cancer, it can cause feelings of depression, or the holiday blues, this time of year. I don't have the numbers to back it up, but I even read somewhere that suicide rates are even much higher in the winter time and across the northern tear of states versus the south. This is because the further north you go, the less good sun exposure you are able to get. So, if you find that you're a perfectly happy person most of the year, yet can't seem to kick the funk when the holidays roll around, you probably have seasonal affective disorder and a cruise to the Bahamas may be just what the doctor ordered. I wonder if my insurance would pay for that?
Posted by
on 11/23 at 10:15 AM
I had studied SAD in my 3 different psyc classes in college. One form of treatment is to sit in front of a flouresent light. This tricks the body into thinking it is getting more sunlight. It doesn’t always work for everyone though. I am a suffer of this disorder. I use to reside in the northern mountains of Pa, about 2 hours south of Buffalo, NY. There the hours of daylight were short, it was usually dark by 4:30 in the afternoon!!! And it snowed from Sept til May!! What Chris says in his post is correct, I can attest to that. Now for the insurance company paying for the trip that maybe a different story.