Winter Blues or Seasonal Affective Disorder?

The holidays are over. The days are long. It’s dark going to work and dark when you get home. Kind of depressing.

How do you tell when you are experiencing the temporary blahs due to winter –  changes in sunlight, cold weather and post holiday let down –  or a more serious depression such as Seasonal Affective Disorder?

In his book Winter Blues:

Everything You Need to Know to Beat Seasonal Affective Disorder, Dr. Norman Rosenthal describes the differences and presents a comprehensive program to counteract the negative effects of Seasonal Affective Disorder.

His suggestions are practical and doable, You can start now to not only make this winter better but to plan how you can do prevention for next winter.

Identifying and treating Seasonal Affective Disorder is especially important when you are in recovery and coping with trauma and stress. Clients I work with do not always recognize their increased vulnerability to relapse and setbacks at this time of year and can be caught off guard. When we integrate mindfulness about their level of depression and triggers to increases, we are more able to take steps to intervene earlier with better outcomes.

In this video Dr. Rosenthal describes how he came to be an expert on Seasonal Affective Disorder and strategies that are helpful.

If you have trouble viewing this video, you can go directly to the interview with Dr. Rosenthal.