In the midst of this holiday season, surrounded by bright lights, colorful displays and tidings of comfort and joy, many among us are simply sad. Although this could be related to unfulfilled expectations or unhappy memories, it’s just as likely to be weather-related.

Despite efforts and actions toward happy wellness, some people experience symptoms of depression during the winter months, which abate during the spring and summer. This may be a sign of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). SAD is a mood disorder associated with depression episodes and related to seasonal variations of light.

SAD was first referenced in medical journals in the early 1800’s, but wasn’t officially recognized and named until the 1980’s. Knowing that the number of sunlight hours in a given day affects seasonal animal behaviors including reproductive cycles and hibernation, scientists assumed that same change in seasons could affect human behaviors as well. Some deduced that SAD is an effect of this seasonal light variation in humans.

As seasons change, there are fewer hours of sunlight in fall and winter, and more hours of darkness. Melatonin, a sleep-related hormone secreted by the pineal gland in the brain, is produced at increased levels in the dark, and when overproduced, can cause symptoms of depression.

Not surprisingly, January and February, the months with the fewest number of daylight hours are the months during which seasonal depression is most frequently reported. On an interesting note, younger people and women seem to be at greatest risk. If you predictably get “the blues” every fall or winter, you may suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder.

Symptoms Include:

• regularly occurring symptoms of depression (excessive eating and sleeping, weight gain) during fall or winter months
• full remission from depression occur in the spring and summer months
• symptoms occurred in two or more fall/winter seasons, with no nonseasonal depression episodes
• seasonal episodes substantially outnumber nonseasonal depression episodes
• a craving for sugary and/or starchy foods

Treatments Include:

Phototherapy, or bright light therapy, has been effectively used to suppress the brain’s secretion of melatonin. Although, there have been no research findings to definitely link this therapy with an antidepressant effect, many people respond quite well. The device most often used today is a bank of white fluorescent lights on a metal reflector and shield with a plastic screen. For mild symptoms, spending time outdoors during the day or arranging homes and workplaces to receive more sunlight may be helpful. One study found that an hour’s walk in winter sunlight was as effective as two and a half hours under bright artificial light.

If phototherapy doesn’t work, an antidepressant drug may prove effective in reducing or eliminating SAD symptoms, but there may be unwanted side effects to consider. Discuss your symptoms thoroughly with your family doctor and/or mental health professional.

If you are not willing to risk the side effects of a prescription antidepressant, you may want to follow Dr. Andrew Weil’s recommendation and consider trying St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum). This extensively researched herb is an effective treatment for a range of conditions, including:

• Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)
• Mild to moderate depression
• Nervousness
• Insomnia
• Anorexia
• Skin irritation, including herpes simplex

Look for  tablets, capsules, tinctures, fluid extract, powdered extract or oil that are standardized for hyperforin and hypericin. Dr. Weil recommends 300 milligrams three times a day. As an antidepressant, it may take six to eight weeks to work. If you suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, you may want to use St. John’s wort in conjunction with phototherapy, or bright light therapy.

If you’re feeling blue, I hope this gives you some tools toward wellness; and I wish all of you a happier holiday season.

Kate

The holidays. I love ‘em, but not everybody does. Sadly, the incidence of suicide peaks at this time of year, especially among the elderly and the nation’s youth.

Here are the facts:

• Suicide ranks as the third leading cause of death for young people (ages 15-19 and 15-24); only accidents and homicides occur more frequently.

• Whereas suicides account for 1.3% of all deaths in the U.S. annually, they comprise 12.3% of all deaths among 15-24 year olds.

• Each year, there are approximately 10 suicides for every 100,000 youth.

• Approximately 11 young people between the ages of 15-24 die every day by suicide.

• Every 2 hours and 15 minutes, a person under the age of 25 completes suicide.

• Suicide rates among 15-24 year olds have more than doubled in the last 50 years. They have declined 25.6% since 1995.

• In the past 60 years, the suicide rate has quadrupled for boys 15 to 24 years old, and doubled for girls of the same age (CDC, 2002).

• Boys between the ages of 20 and 24 were 6.6 times more likely than girlss to complete suicide 2001. Boyss between 15 and 19 were 4.8 times more likely than girlss to complete suicide (2001 data).

• The boy to girl ratio of completed suicides was 5: 1 among 15-19 year olds and 6.9: 1 among 20-24 year olds (2000 data).

• Firearms are the most commonly used suicide method among kids, regardless of race or gender, accounting for almost three of five (57%) completed suicides.

• Access to and availability of firearms is a significant factor in the increase of youth suicide. Guns in the home are deadly to its occupants!

• For every completed suicide by a child, 100 to 200 attempts are made. In grades 9 through 12, 8.8% of students attempted suicide in the previous 12 months (6.2% male and 12.2% female). These numbers decrease from grades 9 (10.7%) to 12 (5.5%). A prior suicide attempt is an important risk factor for an eventual completion.

Source: U Life Line

Suicide.

Hear the word. Hear the comments.

They’re almost automatic.

“Such a selfish thing to do.”…”Don’t they realize what they’re doing to their families?”…”It’s the ultimate sin!”…and on…and on…and on…

As the mother of two young adults who have each attempted suicide in times of severe illness, I understand what compelled them, what prompted their actions. In it’s continuing series on mental illness, Canada’s Globe and Mail published a stark and honest account of one man’s struggle with suicidal thoughts that would not go away. An excerpt of the story written by Erin Anderssen appears below. To read the article in it’s entirety, follow the link.

“It is always there, like a song he can’t stop humming. It plays in the background when he graduates from law school. When he hears “not guilty” in court. When he cheers his son William to victory in the big hockey game or hugs his daughter Sarah for winning the Grade 3 spelling bee. He left Toronto because standing on the subway platform cranked the volume. He tried to shock it out of his brain. For a time, Star Trek episodes muffled it. Drugs, at best, only dull it.

In nearly every moment of his life, Peter O’Neill thinks about killing himself. Sometimes, he makes plans. He buys rope. He sets a date. Mostly though, he is trapped between wanting to die and trying to live, while the same scenes run on a loop in his mind: a noose dangling in shadow, or his body hanging from a rope.

It has slowly drowned out nearly everything else - his marriage, his career, his family.”

Read the rest of Peter’s story at globeandmail.com

Read more on the topic of suicide. The more we understand it, the better equipped we are to prevent it.

One in five families deals with serious mental illness.

Think about it.

If you’re not one of those families, you likely know one…

or two…

or three…

Canada’s Globe and Mail recently began a series on the mental health crisis in their country. It’s a crisis that mirrors a similar situation in the US, where depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder affect 13 to 22 percent of kids under 18.

The series, which I’ll reference and excerpt this week, covers topics like denial, disbelief, fear, rage,  and safety. You’ll learn that seventy percent of adult patients with mental illness can trace symptoms back to childhood; many “vividly recall the first frightening moment of infinite sadness or the anxiety that makes you want to strip off your own skin.”

This article, featuring the Bishop-Quigley family and their ten year-old daughter Erynn, and written by André Picard and Erin Anderssen, graphically illustrates the challenges families face when a child is mentally ill. Read the excerpt below, and thenfollow the link for the entire story, to discover the risks, the cost, the emotional toll and challenges millions of parents face every single day. After you’ve read the story, come back to me and leave your thoughts, ideas, concerns.

“On a Monday morning in September, 2006, during what they call their “darkest of days,” Heather Bishop and Sean Quigley committed their 10-year-old daughter, Erynn, to a psychiatric hospital.

The breaking point came after a Saturday shopping trip to a Sam’s Club in their hometown of London, Ont. When Ms. Bishop casually suggested to Erynn that she put a toy back on the shelf, the girl’s expression clouded, then she erupted into screams. There was no way to bring her back: Soon, she would be throwing punches. They had to get out of the store.

Mr. Quigley slung Erynn over his shoulder and Ms. Bishop abandoned the cart piled high with groceries, just as they had done dozens of time before. This was no simple tantrum. It was everyday life for the couple - trying to protect their daughter and everyone around her while she was consumed by rages she barely remembered afterward.”

For the entire stoey and to learn more about the Quigley family? Click here.

How much is too much?

How much is enough?

When  does support become crippling or enabling?

Does unconditional love mean giving without end?

Too much help…

Can it keep one from self-sufficiency, self reliance?

What if the giver feels used, the gift taken for granted?

Please share your thoughts and experiences.