It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that divorce and holidays are a painful combination, but perhaps there’s more involved in what you’re feeling than just the impact of an unhappy marriage or a divorce in progress.
One line of thinking believes we may feel depressed because the reality of our holidays doesn’t come close to matching the fantasy holidays portrayed in books, movies and in the media. Missing out on the warmth of a loving and caring family particularly at the holiday season can be reason enough to feel down but what if light-deprivation depression is adding to your holiday depression. Maybe you have reason to be S.A.D.
We talk a lot about “Holiday Blues” but let’s consider that what you may be feeling more falls into the “Winter Blues” category. It’s easy to get these mixed together as our major holidays come during the winter months. And “Holiday Blues” are definitely a possibility when you’re dealing with any type of negative situation including divorce, or death of a family member or good friend. But, if you’re like me, you might find every winter a rather depressing time of year.
Perhaps you’ve never heard of “Winter Blues” but it is a very real problem for an estimated 10 to 25 million people in the United States. “Winter Blues” is the common name for “Seasonal Affective Disorder” or “SAD”. SAD can be a serious condition causing its victims varying degrees of depression and moodiness throughout the winter months.
During the winter, as the days get shorter and our exposure to strong light gets less, our internal “body clock” can get out of rhythm, producing the wrong hormones at the the wrong time of the day. Some scientists believe the winter’s lower levels of strong light — sunlight — may cause the body to produce an increased amount of melatonin, a mood-controlling hormone the brain produces during periods of darkness.
This increased level of melatonin will affect each person differently. Symptoms of SAD include irritability, anxiety, weight gain, sleep problems, lack of energy, severe moodiness, depression, daytime drowsiness, a need for much more sleep than during the summer months, increased PMS in women, a craving for carbohydrates.
You might be able to handle a dose of holiday blues but if you are prone to “Winter Blues” the combination could mean some very difficult months ahead.
I’m not the expert on this condition and it may not even be a factor in how you’re feeling, but if there’s even the slightest chance that you’re in the grip of two “Blues,” not just one, isn’t it worth finding out? If you are prone to SAD, learning what you can do to reduce or eliminate its effects could be a step toward a more enjoyable life for you and for your family.
Incidentally, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, more women than men suffer from SAD but anyone can be affected and it is estimated that as many as one million children in the United States are affected in some way by this condition.