The cold autumn and winter months affect you more than other people? Perhaps you have seasonal depression, also known as seasonal affective disorder. Seasonal depression is called a mental disorder whose symptoms are most pronounced at certain times of the year.

Harshly seasonal depression is the so-called summer depression, which starts in late spring or in the first weeks of summer, and ends with the onset of autumn. However, most people have signs of seasonal depression occur in the fall, spring and disappear.

Causes of seasonal depression

Of the two types of seasonal depression, the most well studied and most easily recognized by the so-called autumn or winter depression .  The changing seasons affect the production of hormones by the brain, and this, among other factors, determines a person's attitude to the time of year .  Experts believe that the hormonal changes associated with the development of seasonal depression .  According to one theory, the brain begins to produce less serotonin due to the fact that the fall and winter becomes less sunlight .  Serotonin - a neurotransmitter that has a calming effect on people .  The result of a lack of serotonin are depression, fatigue, increasing age, and sometimes - seasonal depression .  In addition, many people in this state there is a strong attraction to the carbohydrate food .  To a certain extent stimulate the production of serotonin, soothe and improve the mood, however, this effect is temporary .

Usually, the symptoms of seasonal depression first appeared in his youth. This disorder is more common in women than in men. In some people, the symptoms are mild; most often irritability Irritability - you try to control my temper From time to time - the suppression of the general discontent, which alternate periods of good mood. In some cases, seasonal depression causes severe symptoms that have a negative impact on a person's privacy, and also on its achievements in the professional field.

Because seasonal depression is usually associated with a lack of sunlight, it is rare in countries in the thirty degrees north and south of the equator.

Symptoms of seasonal depression

Common symptoms of autumn and winter depression are:

• Prostration;
• Trouble concentrating;
• Fatigue;
• Reinforced appetite;
• Often there is a desire to be left alone;
• Man sleeping more than usual;
• The increase in weight.
• Symptoms of summer depression:
• Weakened appetite;
• Sleep disorders Dreams: how to understand our dreams ;
• Weight loss.

As diagnosed seasonal depression

If you suspect that seasonal depression is very important not to engage in self-diagnostics. If you have any symptoms of depression Depression - a little more than a bad mood And they do not go away within a few weeks, see your doctor. Sometimes depression during the cold season does point to seasonal depression, but in some cases it is part of a complex mental disorder. The physician must determine the severity of depression, and on this basis to appoint therapy.

Treatment of seasonal depression

There are several methods for treating seasonal depression, and what kind of doctor chooses depends on the form of the disease. Many doctors recommend patients to walk as often as possible in the morning to get more sunlight. If this is not possible, it can be assigned to antidepressants and / or phototherapy.

What is phototherapy

Light therapy, or phototherapy Phototherapy - restores vitality   - A medical procedure in which a person is exposed to bright light. During the session, a man sits at about 60 cm from the source of bright light - it is about 20 times brighter than normal room light. Therapy begins with sessions lasting 10-15 minutes per day. Then, depending on the results, the duration can be increased up to 30-45 minutes. It is important that the patient is avoided looking at the light source for a long time - it reduces the likelihood of eye damage as a result of therapy.

Some people who suffer from seasonal depression due svelecheniyu recover in a few days. Other results appear in a few weeks. If light therapy does not work, your doctor may recommend the patient to come to the sessions twice a day. Generally, patients go to the light therapy until spring, when they can get enough light from a natural source.

Researchers attribute the effectiveness of light therapy in seasonal depression with the hormone melatonin, which is one of the properties is the ability to cause drowsiness. When the light affects the retina, the body begins the process, which resulted in reduced production of melatonin. The light is not only reduces the amount of melatonin, but also stimulates the secretion of serotonin, thus providing almost the same effect as antidepressants.

If light therapy is completely ineffective, the patient may be prescribed antidepressants and psychotherapy.

Can you prevent seasonal depression?

The following measures help to reduce the likelihood of seasonal depression:

• Spend as much time in the open air - especially during the day, every day and in any weather.
• Eat right, making sure that you have enough of all the essential vitamins and minerals.
• Exercise at least three times a week for at least half an hour.
• Communicate with friends and family, attend interesting events, even if you want to isolate themselves from the world.

After the loss of someone or something very expensive, you can experience a variety of emotions; Shock, anger, and guilt - only some of them. Sometimes it may seem that the sadness will never let you let go. Although these feelings can be frightening and overwhelming, it is a normal reaction to loss. Adopting them - a natural stage of grief, and to heal the soul, you need to afford to feel this pain.

There is no right or wrong way to experience the mountain, but there are healthy ways to cope with it. Experience of overcoming pain is healing potential that could eventually make you stronger and enrich your life.

What is the Mount

Mountain - is a natural reaction to loss. It is an emotional experience that a person experiences when someone leaves a loved one or something very dear to him. In addition to the death of loved ones, cause severe grief can be a rupture of relations, loss of health, loss of employment and financial stability, miscarriage Miscarriage - can you protect yourself from it? , Pet death, destruction of a cherished dream, serious illness of a loved one, loss of friendship, loss of sense of security after the physical and / or psychological trauma.

The more significant loss for a man, the more his grief. However, even not very significant loss can cause pronounced negative psychological reaction. For example, a person may feel grief after moving, graduation, change of work, sale of the house where his family lived for a long time, or retiring from work, which he loved.

All are experiencing grief in different ways

Mountain - is a personal and very individual experience. How do you deal with it depends on many factors, including the nature of your personality and your style to overcome the difficulties, experience, faith, and the nature of the loss. In any case, this process takes time. Healing happens gradually and it can not be rushed and customized artificial - there is no "normal" schedule of grief. Some people get better after a few weeks or months. Someone living with grief over the years. No matter how it happens to you, you treat yourself with patience and let the process take its course.

Myths and facts about the grieving

• Myth: The pain will pass soon, if ignored

Fact: attempts to ignore the pain and keep it away from the surface of consciousness will lead to very serious consequences in the future. Forced problems always occur in your mind, anyway.

• Myth: It is important to be "strong" in the face of loss

Fact: sadness, fear, and loneliness - a normal reaction to loss. Tears are not a sign of weakness, regardless of gender. You do not need to "defend" his family or friends, while maintaining outward calm. Showing his true feelings, and you will help yourself and them.

• Myth: A person who does not cry, does not regret the loss of

Fact: tears - OK, but not the only reaction to loss. Anyone who does not cry, can feel as strong and deep pain as the others. They simply have it manifests itself differently.

• Myth: The mountain must pass about a year

Fact: Mount nothing "should". As we have said, is not a normal shared schedule by which people experience loss. It is very individual, and if you begin to feel better after a month, it's not a reason to blame himself insensitivity. Similarly, if after two years, or five years from the pain still makes itself known, it does not mean that you are weak and can not cope with them.

Stages of grief

In 1969, psychiatrist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross gained fame by highlighting the five stages of grief. It was based on his study of the senses of patients who experienced prolonged and usually incurable diseases, but were then extended to other severe stress, such as loss of a loved one, divorce, and others.

• Denial: "It can not be that this is happening to me."
• Anger: "Why did this happen? Who is guilty? "
• Trades: "Let it turns out that all this was not, if I do ......"
• Depression: "I'm too bad to do anything"
• Acceptance: "I am resigned to the fact that there was"

If you are experiencing after losing any of these emotions Emotions and culture: how to decipher the emotional code You can help to know that this is natural, after a while comes another stage, and finally, you only accept the occurred. However, not everyone goes through all five stages, and that's okay too. Contrary to popular belief, to cope with their grief, you do not have to live all five steps in the "right" order. Sometimes people cope with their grief and do not pass through any of these steps. For others, these stages are in a different order, and between them there is a well-marked face. So, again, you do not have to worry about some mountain in a certain way. There is a typical reaction to the loss, because there is no typical loss. Our grief as individual as our lives.

Grief can be like a roller coaster

Instead of gradually changing each other emotional states you can be sudden swings from calm and quiet melancholy to acute despair and anger over the fact that it happened to you. First, the periods of particularly severe pain can be so lengthy that you begin to think that they will never run out. But after a while you will feel longer calm and humility, and that's fine. Attacks of severe pain may come and years later, especially in the anniversary of the death of a loved one, on his birthday or on holidays you spent together.

Common symptoms of grief

Although people respond to loss differently, the symptoms listed below, in one degree or another are manifested in almost all. Just remember that everything is okay - even if you think you are going crazy or that you see a nightmare and can not wake up, or start to doubt what they believed in all my life.

• Shock and denial. Immediately after the loss may be hard to accept what happened. You may feel numbness, inability to believe what had happened; Many people deny the truth. After news of the death of a loved his family often for some time may be expected that he was going to come back, it was a mistake. It is a natural protective reaction of the psyche, because for some people can be unbearable at once and fully understand what happened.
• Deep sadness - probably the most common sign of grief that most people experience. Since it involves a feeling of emptiness, despair, anguish and deep loneliness. You can cry a lot and experiencing emotional instability.
• Guilt - a man deeply regrets the fact that something was not done, and whether or not said. You may receive a sense of guilt for some of their own feelings (for example, a relief after the death of long and hard bolevshego close). Often one thinks that could somehow prevent the death of a loved one, even if aware that it was impossible.
• Anger. Even if the loss is nobody's fault, you may be angry at her for someone: for themselves, for God, doctors, or even of the dead, because he left you. You feel the injustice and the need to charge it with someone.
• Physiological symptoms. We often think that the experience of grief - a strictly psychological process, but it also affects our body. In particular, you may experience fatigue, nausea Nausea - there may be problems with the nervous system , Weakened immunity Immunity - types and characteristics in children in adults , Decrease or increase in weight, pain, insomnia.