Comments | differenceblog: Too bad, so SAD

differenceblog

Too bad, so SAD

Jan 09, 2007 08:03

Psychology Info Online (2003) defines Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) as "a pattern of depressive or manic episodes that occurs with the onset of the winter months... [which] abate once the days become longer and warmer in the Spring." "Affective" refers to affect, or mood, and not to the seasons affecting a person. The site also says that SAD ( Read more... )

mothers, within sex differences, sad, women's work, light exposure, lifestyle, depression, affect, stay-at-home, parenting, environment, gender differences, age, emotion, circadian, mental health, housework, children, aging, sex differences, women, sadness, seasonal affective disorder, marriage, winter blues, labor division

Comments 10

wearbear January 9 2007, 14:23:24 UTC

Maybe it has more to do with the company you have in the long dark days of winter. I know that my co-workers and I get to talk about everything from work to politics to pop culture. That goes a long way towards keeping me happy. If I had to spend all day with a bunch of kids, no matter how much I might love them, I'd be pretty depressed too.

differenceblog January 9 2007, 14:36:14 UTC

yeah, I think that the social contacts of parents are seriously understudied.

desertsunflower January 9 2007, 16:42:29 UTC

I am a SAHM. My children are 7, 4, and 2. And yes, I think being alone at home all morning and afternoon without other adults to interact with makes it worse.

I live in the Yukon. During the winter, when it's uber cold, dark, and it takes 30 minutes to bundle them all up to go out - I just don't muster up enough enthusiasm for going out. I'm sure it would be beneficial, but I know how tired it makes me to go out.

Being constantly fatigued and being a parent is also difficult. The tiredness exacerbates the depression, in my thinking. And my parenting abilities suffer too.

differenceblog January 9 2007, 16:45:37 UTC

Thank you for talking about this. Can you tell me anything about your community, for a frame of reference? Is it a very small town?

desertsunflower January 9 2007, 16:58:34 UTC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitehorse%2C_Yukon

The Yukon is next door to Alaska, very far north (60°23'N / 135°05' W). Whitehorse is the capital city of the territory and has a population of 23,000.

The winters are dark and on the shortest day of the year, there's only 5.5 hours of daylight.

differenceblog January 9 2007, 17:04:04 UTC

I suspected it was a smallish town, since I know the Yukon isn't densely populated. SAD tends to affect more people in the extreme latitudes, as well.

Still, that's an order of magnitude larger than the community that I grew up in, so my frame of reference is skewed.

Thread 5

differenceblog January 9 2007, 21:28:16 UTC

additional comments at sadsupport

Dude, is it in the air or something? goteam January 10 2007, 00:06:17 UTC

Another LJ-friend-I've-never-met just posted something about his SAD symptoms lessening today, and I thought I felt it last week, but then today I'm rocking me some weird flu-like feels-like-I'm-quitting-Celexa-again symptoms, and a little further research suggests that the same thing happened three weeks ago for no reason and basically what I'm trying to say is arglebargle brain chemistry grumblegrump! I've been reading a book about SAD on and off for the past month or so (Winter Blues by Norman Rosenthal, and note to self: never again in December, only in May or June) and it says there's some correlation between SAD and severe PMS. Did you come across anything about that in your readings? And while we're on the topic of women's health and mental health, I highly recommend All In My Head by Paula Kamen, about her still-ongoing seventeen-year headache, and everything she learned in the process. Pretty amazing stuff.

still blaming Berlin winter for not getting laid beckiemoriello January 10 2007, 01:29:43 UTC

When I was in Berlin for a year (latitude mid-way b/t NH and Yukon), I definitely felt odd during the winter. My body relished each moment I was in the sun.

Only describable effect was a decrease in sex drive. I even had a girlfriend at the time, which usually has the opposite effect on me (especially considering how rarely I'm dating anyone.) We only had sex a handful of times in 4 months.