Our thanks to Brendan McNamara and WTRF 7 for their story featuring Wendy Ralston, Director, Behavioral Health Services, Trinity Health System, and her expertise on Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). Check out an excerpt below, along with a link to viewing the entire piece.
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Steubenville, OHIO (WTRF-TV) A combination of colder weather and less sunlight may leave you feeling a bit more depressed than usual.
Seasonal Affective Disorder, otherwise known as SAD, or seasonal depression, happens around this time of year when temperatures are cold, and
sunlight is scarce due to the time change.
Natural sunlight is paramount to our health, as it gives us vitamin D and raises serotonin levels, which make us feel happy.
However, in the winter when there is less sunlight, your body is not receiving as much vitamin D.
As a result, serotonin levels drop leading to feelings of sadness and hopelessness.
“Seasonal Affective disorder, also known as sad, really kind of affects people in multiple different ways. You know, it’s more commonly known as seasonal depression or maybe just the holiday blues or just the winter blues for, you know, for better lack of words is what the commonality term that people understand seasonal affective disorder. Generally, it happens the same time every year. Light we see during time change is horrible you know and decreased sunlight during the during the day really has an effect on somebody’s personality, and sometimes behavior and mood as well. So, you’ll just start to see increased signs of feeling sadness, hopelessness, just not feeling yourself.” — Wendy Ralston, Director, Trinity Behavioral Health Services