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Winter Blues:

The millions of people suffering from full-blown, clinical SAD are just the tip of the iceberg. Somewhere toward the bottom are people who are just dragging, not getting their work done, and generally feeling unhappy. These people may be more inclined to say that the wintertime fatigue is more prominent than a change in mood. Carbohydrate cravings are also common. Experts suggest that over 50 million North Americans suffer from the Winter Blues.

The time course is the same, though, usually starting in mid- to late fall and resolving by early May. Importantly, people may experience the blues some years, and full Seasonal Affective Disorder other years. This may be due to differences in the weather pattern, but also to current life stresses. If you are having trouble with employment or family, it is more likely you will develop a major mood disorder that year.

The fact is, most people cannot judge for themselves whether they are experiencing the blues or a full-blown Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). Clinicians learn how to do this in the course of seeing hundreds of patients. Clinicians can therefore sensitively determine whether treatment is needed, and what kind of treatment.

A major question is deciding whether you should see a clinician if you are not sure about the severity of your seasonal swings. CET can help you decide on-line: complete their confidential Personalized Inventory for SAD on the Self Assessment section of this website, and you will receive personalized feedback about symptom severity, seasonality, with guidance toward a clinician if indicated. If you have full-blown SAD, you should take light therapy (or any other therapy) under a doctor's supervision - if things turn worse, your doctor is in a better position than you to advise next steps.

If your main problem is the winter blues, it is reasonable to try self-treatment with light therapy if you follow recommendations like those from the Center for Environmental Therapeutics www.cet.org or a book like Norman's Rosenthal's Winter Blues (which you can order through CET).

Bright Light therapy for the winter blues is the same as light therapy for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). Just because your symptoms are relatively mild does not mean that you are going to need a lower dose of light. Both SAD and winter blues sufferers often respond to the same treatment regimen: 10,000 lux light box therapy for 30 minutes upon awakening. As you get the hang of it, you will sense whether you need to increase exposure duration (say, to 45 minutes) or decrease it (say, to 20 minutes) to get an optimum response. Many people decide to increase the duration above 30 minutes during January and February, then reduce it to 30 minutes in March and April.