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Turning Out the Lights on Mania: Dark Therapy
Written by Candida Fink, MD on November 10, 2020
Heading into Daylight Savings Time here in the Northeast, we are facing the darker, shorter days of winter. For many people that also means a dip in mood. And for a sub-group of those folks, the loss of daylight hours can trigger a depressive episode, which goes beyond a sad mood to include symptoms such as low energy, impaired concentration, trouble enjoying things, and hopelessness. This is referred to as
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD
Shining a Light on Depression
In addition to therapy and antidepressants, we also use light therapy to treat and manage seasonal depression. This means sitting in front of a specialized light box, usually for 30 minutes in the mornings, starting in September and continuing into the Spring. Light therapy provides significant relief for people who live with SAD especially when it works to prevent the onset of an episode.
With the big show of the holidays less than 10 days away and the end of 2020 only a mere 15 days away, this week in particular is hard.
If you celebrate Christmas, this is the week where you tie up all your loose ends into a pretty little bow and get everything in order. There s the last-minute gifts to find, packages to attempt to track down, various plans to finalize and just the glowing promise of the light at the end of the tunnel.
Finally, you ll get some time off work, finally this dumpster fire of a year will be over and all that stands in your way is a little over a week of responsibilities and stress.
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Getting some light could help battle Seasonal Affective Disorder
As Iowans battle cold temperatures, snow, ice, and oh, the isolation of the pandemic, it’s little wonder some people say they’re depressed or have the winter blues, even if it’s not even officially winter yet.
Jonathan Sikorski, a licensed mental health practitioner in Omaha/Council Bluffs, says Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD is a very real condition. “A big misconception about Seasonal Affective Disorder is that it’s just something in your head,” Sikorski says. “It’s actually a diagnosable subset of major depression and it affects a lot of people nationally.”
5:15
Right now, we’re getting about eight and a half hours of daylight in the Northwoods. That’s about seven hours less than we we’re getting six months ago.
It’s also eight and half more hours of light than Svalbard sees right now.
Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago and where Sarah Strand has lived for the last six years.
“We’re about, approximately 2,500 living on Svalbard. Most of those are in Longyearbyen where I live. It’s the main town,” said Strand.
Strand and I met when we were both interns at Denali National Park in the summer of 2014.