Seasonal Affective Disorder Symptoms
There is treatment for SAD, which is why it is important that you recognize seasonal affective disorder symptoms so that you can get medical help to treat the problem.
The main symptom associated with SAD is that it only comes during a specific time of the year, usually starting in the fall and ending when spring arrives. This is known as winter seasonal affective disorder, but a person can also suffer from SAD during the warmer months as well. It just needs to be a specific pattern year after year for it to be SAD.
At the onset of the season, a person's the season affective disorder symptoms usually start out pretty mild. As the season progresses it usually gets more severe. This is why many people thought of SAD as just holiday stress since by the time Christmas and New Years comes around it is well into the winter time.
Some of the common seasonal affective disorder symptoms to be on the look out for are:
• Anxiety
• Lack of energy/fatigue
• Weight gain
• Food cravings especially for foods high in carbohydrates
• Hopelessness
• Can never get enough sleep
• Withdrawal from others
• Difficulty concentrating
• Overall depressed attitude about everything
When a person suffers from SAD during the summer months, some of these symptoms are going to be slightly different. For example, instead of weight gain, people often lose weight. Instead of sleeping too much or way too often, in summer people may not be able to sleep at.
It's perfectly normal to have some days when you may not feel the greatest and you are in a very blah mood, especially during winter when you may be trapped indoors and don't have the sun shining outside. If you find that your depressing moods are much more often than a few times a month or you go days where you feel depressed then you want to contact your doctor to talk about possibly suffering from seasonal affective disorder.
If you ever start thinking about suicide, or you turn to alcohol or drugs to treat your SAD symptoms, you need to get immediate medical help. There are treatments available for seasonal affective disorder and you don't have to live with the symptoms every year.
Source: http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/common/mentalhealth/depression/267.html
Published by Tiffany Bell
Tiffany enjoys staying healthy and helping others with weight loss and diet information that she has learned over the past years. View profile
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