Avalon Nuovo

If the darkening evenings and turning leaves induce a mild sense of dread in you every year, you’re not alone.

With the arrival of winter, many of us experience Seasonal Affective Disorder — which bears the appropriate acronym of SAD — and can bring on a depressed mood, loss of interest in things that you normally enjoy, and changes in sleep and appetite. While there aren’t conclusive figures, it is thought to affect between one and nine percent of the population, depending on where you live.

Although we may think of it as being a distinct affliction of its own, SAD is actually classified as either bipolar or major depressive disorder, but with a seasonal pattern. This means that people who experience it feel much worse in the fall and winter and relatively balanced or potentially even manic in the summer months, explains Kathryn Roecklein PhD, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh who studies the condition.

“Depression itself is pretty episodic,” says Roecklein. “You have a period of it, and then it goes away. The distinction [with SAD] is the seasonal recurrence.” It also appears that SAD is two to four times more common amongst women.

Even though we are making greater efforts as a society to recognize the importance of our mental health, it can be tempting to dismiss SAD as a touch of the “winter blues” and to try to get on with life as usual. But the best approach, Roecklein says, is to accept and recognize that it’s something that we may genuinely suffer from — and need treatment for. Just as we would for heart disease or diabetes.

Why does winter make us SAD?

The story of SAD starts with our circadian rhythm — our internal body clock that tells us when to eat, go to sleep and wake up.

For the most part, we tend not to think too much about this system unless we have an unexpectedly late night or take a long-haul flight. But chronobiologist Emily Manoogian PhD says it plays a much more significant role.

“The circadian system is directly tied to how our brain functions, and this affects our cognitive ability, our behavior, our mood and our ability to remember things,” says Manoogian, who researches circadian rhythms at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California. “The circadian system is important for making sure that throughout your body and brain, regions are talking to each other the way that they should be and everything is balanced. We know that circadian disruption is heavily associated with every form of affective disorder — such as major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, etc.”

Increased darkness in the fall and winter months is something that humans on much of the planet have experienced for thousands of years, but our technological advancement — in particular, artificial light — is interfering with this natural occurrence. Light is one of the most powerful stimuli for our circadian systems, and since the advent of electricity we’ve been sending our bodies a lot of mixed messages.

“This environment that we’ve created is inherently disruptive — it’s not lights on and off at a constant time to allow for a proper rest for our body; it’s lights on when we need to be up for work on some days, and then off later on other days,” explains Manoogian. “That creates this kind of social jetlag. That’s also going to make it a lot harder to sleep, and it can compromise health over time.”

Manoogian is also not a fan of daylight savings time. She says, “It shifts our exposure to sunlight later in the day and thus shifts our biological clocks. In the summer, we are getting sunlight later than we should, and when days are shorter, we are waking up in darkness. But the problem is that we still have to start work or school at the same times. This means that our schedules and our body are on different times, and this disrupts the circadian system.”

Although there is no evidence connecting it directly to SAD, daylight savings time is known to be widely disruptive to society and potentially even associated with cardiac health risks. There’s a growing movement to do away with the twice-annual time switch in several Canadian provinces, where Saskatchewan and (as of 2020) the Yukon Territory stick to the same time year-round, and similar proposals are being considered in other jurisdictions around the world.

What can you do?

As with any disorder, your treatment depends in part on severity. If SAD is significantly disrupting your life or making you feel as though life is not worth living anymore, it’s deeply important for you to reach out immediately to a mental health professional who can support you. Roecklein says that effective treatment options include taking medication, receiving cognitive behavioral therapy tailored to treating SAD, or using a SAD lamp (which delivers a higher dose of light than regular indoor lighting), but they should be explored under professional guidance.

If you’re wondering what to do because you’ve already bought a SAD lamp to use on your own, Roecklein says that there could be side effects. The most likely one, which is mild, is that you will feel it isn’t effective. This doesn’t mean that it can’t be the right therapy for you in conjunction with professional guidance — for instance, you could be using it at the wrong times or for the wrong duration. At the other end of the scale, mania is a very rare but significant side effect of improper use.

However, there are some relatively easy things you can do to support your circadian rhythms in everyday life. And while these aren’t guaranteed treatments for SAD, they can help give your body a stabilizing sense of routine.

Keep a consistent schedule, especially if you work from home

This doesn’t need to be a rigid, planned-down-to-10-minute increments affair; it’s more about keeping the stimuli that speak to your circadian system arriving roughly when it expects them, says Manoogian. Social interactions and food are two important circadian cues, so having regular mealtimes and breaks where you make a phone call, go for a walk or talk with other members of your household can really help.

Exercise is another important cue

It’s hard to get — and stay — motivated during a winter of pandemic-related restrictions, so any exercise is better than no exercise at all, emphasizes Manoogian. However, if you do choose to exercise outside, she says that the morning is a good time for your body to get some much needed natural light.

The only time for you to avoid exercising, if possible, is right before bed. When you do, it sends a confusing message to your body that night is a time to be active rather than to prepare for sleep.

Maximizing your light exposure is key

How much light we experience at different times of the day is important. Increasing the amount of light you get in the morning is helpful, whereas increasing your light exposure in the evening can be counterproductive.

So if your morning commute has changed from an hour in the car or on transit to a quick switch from your bed to your desk, you’re losing out on a lot of daylight that you are used to receiving just when you need it most. Taking a morning walk before you start your day, or even sitting near a bright window for the first half of your day can really help.

At night, reducing your light exposure and making your sleeping environment as dark as possible is also of huge benefit, explains Roecklein. “Most circadian biologists and sleep researchers I know have blackout shades and no night lights in their rooms — we don’t even have clocks with illuminated screens.”

No, it’s not just you — 2020 may be making your SAD worse

It’s difficult to separate the impacts of factors like the COVID-19 pandemic, the associated economic downturn and the psychological toll of the current political climate. But Roecklein has noted, at least anecdotally among the people in her SAD study, that there seems to be a higher instance of what psychologists refer to as “negative anticipatory cognitions” — where people consistently expect things to be worse in 2020 than in other years.

Roecklein also notes that experiencing negative life events — such as a bereavement, job loss or some other major change that requires large adjustment — as well as reduced opportunities for social and physical activity are additional risk factors for SAD. These areas of our lives have all been significantly impacted by COVID-19, so she and her colleagues anticipate a higher risk of people experiencing SAD this year.

However, there may be one small silver lining to the current situation, says Manoogian. While routine is very important for our bodies, a regular 9-5 work day can be very unnatural for those of us who aren’t morning people.

“The typical workday schedule is an artificial time that not everyone is able to stick to,” she explains. “If you work from home and you have a little bit of freedom about when you work, this could provide a very interesting opportunity for you to actually coordinate your schedule more with your internal clock.”

Sometimes it’s OK to doomscroll

Lastly, Roecklein wants to stress that although a routine is important, we are living through monumental events that are unfolding right before our eyes. And if we occasionally want to stay up a few hours later to feel better informed or more connected to other people experiencing the same thing… that’s actually fine.

“We take a moment to care for ourselves by thinking about the pros and cons. So there may be some nights where staying up late and doomscrolling is a choice one might make for good reasons,” says Roecklein. “But then on other nights, when we think about what we want most for ourselves — like better energy in the morning, a more positive mood, better alertness for the endless Zoom meetings — we might be more motivated to turn off devices, turn off the TV, dim the lights, and do all of those things that can help you wind down. Give yourself the chance to make that decision, and make the decision that’s right for you.”

Watch Emily Manoogian’s TEDxSanDiegoSalon Talk on your circadian clock here: 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mary Halton is Assistant Ideas Editor at TED, and a science journalist based in the Pacific Northwest.

This post was originally published on TED Ideas. It’s part of the “How to Be a Better Human” series, each of which contains a piece of helpful advice from someone in the TED community; browse through all the posts here.

Justin Tran

By adopting a take-charge approach towards living with depression, you can start to feel more in control and less powerless, says health activist Jessica Gimeno. She shares three helpful strategies.

“Depression takes practice,” says Chicago-based health activist and writer Jessica Gimeno in a TEDxPilsenWomen talk. Wait — that sounds unrealistic and unwise. Depression just happens to a person, and if you’ve ever been seriously depressed, it’s something that you sincerely hope will never happen again, right?

“What I’m saying is that living well with depression takes practice,” clarifies Gimeno. “Being productive every day despite depression takes practice. Being a student or an employee with depression takes practice.”

Knowing how to live with depression is important for many of us — with more than 300 million people across the globe living with chronic depression, it’s the leading cause of disability worldwide. “With a visible disability, we assume it will take practice to cope, including things like physical therapy,” says Gimeno, who has a blog called Fashionably Ill. “Yet when it comes to depression, we think that a label and medication are enough to cope. It’s time to go beyond getting a diagnosis, into giving people actual coping mechanisms. Without coping mechanisms, we’re trapped in a downward spiral. Being depressed leads to falling behind; falling behind leads to more depression.”

After she was diagnosed with bipolar II disorder when she was in college, Gimeno was helped by therapy and medication. However, she was eager to find out how to continue living her life and get things done while she was depressed. In the absence of existing resources and dealing with other challenges to her health including myasthenia gravis (a debilitating autoimmune neuromuscular disease) and polycystic ovarian syndrome, she created her own strategies. Note: This advice is not intended to cure or treat depression but to help you better manage the rest of your life while living with depression.

1. Be proactive.

It’s a cliche because it’s true — the best defense is a vigorous offense. Do you know what you’ll do the next time you’re depressed? “In order to make a plan, you need to know two things: your symptoms of depression and the strategies that work for you,” Gimeno explains.

While mental-health professionals and physicians have uncovered many common symptoms of depression — such as feelings of anxiety and hopelessness; changes in sleep, appetite and energy; inability to concentrate — Gimeno says it’s important for you to pinpoint your individual signs. It could be sleeping too much or barely sleeping at all, losing your appetite or wanting to eat all the time, excessive irritability or excessive apathy, or anything else. Your signs don’t have to be only physical, however — they may be specific behaviors. For example, writer Chris Dancy has noticed that when he’s feeling depressed he spends much more of his time using particular apps (in his case, Twitter, Fitbit and Facebook).

Next, you need to identify helpful actions that you can take as soon as these symptoms arise. Gimeno asks: “What do you need when you get depressed? Is it faith, is it family, is it friends, is it exercise, is it reading, is it listening to music?” Note: Your go-to activities should be ones that can truly make you feel better, not just cope, and also ones that won’t make you feel worse in the long run. While eating a pint of ice cream is one coping strategy, getting ice-cream with a friend or family member is a better tactic to take. Be prepared to act whenever you notice an episode of depression is beginning for you. As Gimeno says, “Know yourself, plan now, don’t wait.”

2. Zoom in on what’s most important for you to accomplish.

For Gimeno, this means prioritizing her to-do list. She says, “If something’s due today, it gets 4 stars; if it’s due tomorrow, 3 stars; sometime this week, 2 stars, next week [or later], 1 star. And when I’m depressed, I ignore anything that has less than 3 stars.”

Urgency isn’t only about getting things done, she says. It’s “also about being able to say no to non-essential tasks. So, meeting your work deadline is essential; the church bake sale is non-essential. When we say yes to everything, we amplify our stress.”

3. Figure out the difficulty of your tasks, and let this guide your actions.

Gimeno says, “When I’m depressed, I label all tasks as a 1, 2 or a 3. If it’s an easy task, it’s a 1; examples include eating breakfast or taking a shower. If it’s a moderately difficult task, it’s a 2, and a 3 is reserved for difficult tasks. For example, finishing a paper in college, scheduling an appointment with your child’s teacher, or meeting a difficult work deadline.”

If she’s in the midst of an episode of depression, she explains, “I focus on finishing all the 1 level tasks first. And every time I cross something off my list, even if it’s taking a shower, I feel empowered … And as I finish off all the 1 and 2 level tasks, I build the confidence to tackle the 3 level tasks.”

When it’s possible, she also tries to turn 3 tasks into 1s or 2s. For example, when she’s depressed, working out for 30 minutes is a 3. But working out for just 10 minutes makes it easier to accomplish, so that’s what she does.

Despite all her best efforts, plans and lists, Gimeno admits that there are still days when illness wins. Know that’s OK, and don’t add to your suffering by beating yourself up because you’re human. She says, “I want to share this with anyone who … fights depression or who loves someone that does. Yes, depression is real. But hope is real. Courage is real. Resilience is real.”

Watch her TEDxPilsenWomen Talk now:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Daryl Chen is the Ideas Editor at TED.

This post was originally published on TED Ideas. It’s part of the “How to Be a Better Human” series, each of which contains a piece of helpful advice from someone in the TED community; browse through all the posts here.

TED-Ed

Depression, bipolar disorder, OCD, narcissism, PTSD, chronic stress, schizophrenia— these medical conditions impact millions of people around the world, yet are often misunderstood. How much do you know about the symptoms and treatments?

In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, watch these 8 TED-Ed Lessons:

1. What is depression?

Depression is the leading cause of disability in the world; in the United States, close to ten percent of adults struggle with the disease. But because it’s a mental illness, it can be a lot harder to understand than, say, high cholesterol. Helen M. Farrell examines the symptoms and treatments of depression, and gives some tips for how you might help a friend who is suffering. Watch this TED-Ed Lesson below.

2. What is bipolar disorder?

The word bipolar means ‘two extremes.’ For the many millions experiencing bipolar disorder around the world, life is split between two different realities: elation and depression. So what causes this disorder? And can it be treated? Helen M. Farrell describes the root causes and treatments for bipolar disorder. Watch this TED-Ed Lesson below.

3. Debunking the myths of OCD

There’s a common misconception that if you like to meticulously organize your things, keep your hands clean, or plan out your weekend to the last detail, you might be OCD. In fact, OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) is a serious psychiatric condition that is frequently misunderstood by society and mental health professionals alike. Natascha M. Santos debunks the myths surrounding OCD.
Watch this TED-Ed Lesson below.

4. The psychology of narcissism

Narcissism isn’t just a personality type that shows up in advice columns; it’s actually a set of traits classified and studied by psychologists. But what causes it? And can narcissists improve on their negative traits? W. Keith Campbell describes the psychology behind the elevated and sometimes detrimental self-involvement of narcissists. Watch this TED-Ed Lesson below.

5. The psychology of post-traumatic stress disorder

Many of us will experience some kind of trauma during our lifetime. Sometimes, we escape with no long-term effects. But for millions of people, those experiences linger, causing symptoms like flashbacks, nightmares, and negative thoughts that interfere with everyday life. Joelle Rabow Maletis details the science behind post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Watch this TED-Ed Lesson below.

6. How stress affects your brain

Stress isn’t always a bad thing; it can be handy for a burst of extra energy and focus, like when you’re playing a competitive sport or have to speak in public. But when it’s continuous, it actually begins to change your brain. Madhumita Murgia shows how chronic stress can affect brain size, its structure, and how it functions, right down to the level of your genes. Watch this TED-Ed Lesson below.

7. The truth about electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)

In 1982, a young nurse was suffering from severe, unrelenting depression. She couldn’t work, socialize or concentrate. One controversial treatment changed everything: after two courses of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) her symptoms lifted. So what exactly is electroconvulsive therapy and why is it so stigmatized? Helen M. Farrell details the history and evolution of ECT. Watch this TED-Ed Lesson below.

8. What is schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia was first identified more than a century ago, but we still don’t know its exact causes. It remains one of the most misunderstood and stigmatized illnesses today. So what do we actually know about its symptoms, causes, and treatments? Anees Bahji investigates. Watch this TED-Ed Lesson below.

To get brand new TED-Ed Lessons delivered to your inbox each week, sign up for the free TED-Ed Newsletter here >>

Depression is the leading cause of disability in the world. In the United States, close to 10 percent of adults struggle with depression. But because it’s a mental illness, it can be a lot harder to understand than, say, high cholesterol.

One major source of confusion is the difference between having depression and just feeling depressed. Almost everyone feels down from time-to-time, but Clinical Depression is different. It’s a medical disorder, and it won’t go away just because you want it to. It lingers for at least two consecutive weeks and significantly interferes with one’s ability to work, play or love. Chances are you know someone who suffers from depression. Here are some ways you can help.

1. Help find help: If you know someone struggling with depression, encourage them – gently – to seek out help. You might even offer to help with specific tasks, like looking up therapists in the area or making a list of questions to ask a doctor. To someone with depression, these first steps can seem insurmountable.

2. Be informed: If they feel guilty or ashamed, point out that depression is a medical condition just like asthma or diabetes. It’s not a weakness or a personality trait, and they shouldn’t expect themselves to “just get over it” any more than they could will themselves to get over a broken arm. The more you know about mental illness, the better able you are to understand what they are going through, and to support them.

3. Don’t downplay it: If you haven’t experienced depression yourself, avoid comparing it to times you’ve felt down – comparing what they’re experiencing to normal, temporary feelings of sadness can make them feel guilty for struggling.

4. Stamp out stigma: Even just talking about depression openly can help. For example, research shows that asking someone about suicidal thoughts actually reduces their suicide risk. Open conversations about mental illness help erode stigma, and make it easier for people to ask for help. And, the more patients seek treatment, the more scientists will learn about depression, and the better the treatments will get.

5. Continue the conversation: Because depression’s symptoms are intangible, it’s hard to know who might look fine, but is actually struggling. Just because your friend may seem fine one day, don’t assume that they’ve ‘gotten better’. Remain supportive.

From the TED-Ed Lesson: What is depression?

Animation by Artrake Studio/TED-Ed

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I grew up in love with stories. There were days when I’d refuse to go outside or come to dinner because I had my nose in a book, or was trying to write one. My earliest dreams and aspirations came from the characters I read about. But I only thought about their strengths and not about their weaknesses. So when I started presenting at local schools about reading and writing, I built an impossible definition of the character I should play. I wanted to be the “good teacher” — knowledgeable, eloquent and invulnerable. I thought this was the only way to be inspiring.

Be perfect, I told myself while spinning stories on a beat-up laptop with eager elementary school students, because everyone’s watching.

This desire was ironic because I told those students time after time, “Make your characters three-dimensional. Give them strengths and weaknesses.” Yet the very flaws I asked students to make transparent in the pages they wrote, I tried to hide in my own character.

After my TED Talk, I turned 13. I got to hear words like “You’re an inspiration” and “I look up to you.” I traveled to Mexico, France, Switzerland, India, and Sri Lanka — over the course of two months — just for speaking engagements. By anyone’s standards, I was on top of the world. Yet in less than two years, I had filled two journals. Almost every entry started with the words, “I feel sad today.”

It was only after this long sadness had ebbed, passing with an uncharacteristic gentleness, that I felt like I could tell anyone else. I turned 14, and I confessed — about the crying, the journaling, the emptiness — to my best friend.

“Why didn’t you say anything before?” she asked, aghast. A part of me was surprised, as if I had expected a reprimand for a different thing — for having the long sadness, not for staying silent.

I resolved not to stay silent anymore. I turned 15, and I slowly expanded the number of people that I told about who I was when cameras were off and my door was closed. I started writing about small failings and insecurities on my blog. One post — about my poor performance on the SAT’s math section — earned me a then-boyfriend’s horror, a summer of precalc tutoring — and an outpouring of support from friends. Friends shared my post out on their Facebook walls and added their own stories of less-than-stellar academic performance. “None of us have it all figured out,” I wrote in that blog post, adding, “You’re not alone. You never have been.”

Around the world, we’ve seen a number of TED-Ed Club members share their own stories about depression and difficult times.

If you’re working on a TED-Ed Club talk about depression, below are some helpful links on the topic:

1. World Suicide Prevention Day is September 10. Read suicide prevention tips for kids and teens, watch Kevin Briggs’ TED Talk: The bridge between suicide and life, learn the warning signs and explore the link to depression. The National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-TALK.
2. What is depression exactly, and what are some causes and solutions? Find a general overview of the scientific and social elements of depression on ASAP Science and Crash Course, watch Andrew Solomon’s TED Talk: Depression, the secret we share, and take the TED-Ed Lesson: A brief history of melancholy.
3. If you’re interested in the biological and public health side of mood disorders, you can research symptoms and prevalence of depression (and find comprehensive mental health statistics) using information from the National Institutes of Health. If you’re interested in how to practice emotional first aid, read this short TED article.
4. The British actor and comedian Stephen Fry wrote of depression, “It’s not all bad. Heightened self-consciousness, apartness, an inability to join in, physical shame and self-loathing—they are not all bad. Those devils have been my angels. Without them I would never have disappeared into language, literature, the mind, laughter and all the mad intensities that made and unmade me.” You can explore the link between depression and creativity in this New York Times piece, “Depression’s Upside.”
5. To see two students’ powerful testaments of personal experiences with depression, watch slam poetry performances like “Explaining My Depression to My Mother” and “Living With Depression.”

Whether you choose to speak about depression on the societal, personal or even molecular level, know that you are shedding light on an important topic when you present your ideas to others with confidence. Courage is contagious, and building a society that is more open and less judgmental begins when you start speaking up.

More than 10,000 students are now sharing and presenting their ideas in TED-Ed Clubs around the world. Interested in starting a TED-Ed Club at your school? Find out more.