“Seasonal depression” is a term often uttered through chattering teeth as the mercury drops each year. However, as the phrase becomes a popular description of wintertime sadness, serious misconceptions are being spread about the mental impact of winter, according to an expert.
What Actually Causes Seasonal Depression?
The clinical term for seasonal depression is seasonal affective disorder (SAD), and it affects anywhere between 0.3 per cent and 5 per cent of Australians. SAD symptoms closely resemble typical forms of depression but differ in that they only occur at a specific time of year, generally in autumn and winter, explained Nesh Nikolic, managing director of Strategic Psychology.
“It’s basically a persistent low mood or a loss of interest in activities, fatigue, low energy, potentially oversleeping, difficulty concentrating, low mood, hopelessness, and worthlessness,” he told 7NEWS.com.au. “All those common attributes that we would see with depression.”
While it’s difficult to pinpoint a direct cause, reduced exposure to direct sunlight is believed to be a major factor. “It disrupts the circadian rhythm, and we tend to spend a lot more hours in the dark during our personal time while daylight hours are spent at work,” Nikolic said. “That in itself could be a little bit depressing. Not everyone is affected equally, but it could act as a trigger.”
Fewer opportunities for socialising and less exercise may also play a role, Nikolic added. “All of those combined factors mean there might be a prevalence of feeling flatter during the cooler months.”
Seasonal Depression Misconceptions
While it’s positive that the term seasonal depression is being discussed, particularly online, Nikolic says this has also led to the spread of misconceptions. The main issue is people not understanding the difference between SAD and simply feeling flat during the colder months.
“I certainly feel these effects, but we all don’t meet the criteria of SAD,” Nikolic said. “We all tend to feel flatter, but whether it meets that criteria is a very different space, and that’s an important consideration.”
The key difference is whether the condition has a significant impact, or “impairment,” on someone’s life. “Impairment usually means it is considerably affecting work, social, or educational activities,” Nikolic said. Psychologists specifically look for whether these impacts occur only during a seasonal change, a point where “most people” fail to meet the criteria for SAD.
This misconception has led to many people falsely claiming they have the clinical diagnosis in research efforts. Consequently, estimates of how many Australians are affected range wildly from 80,000 to 1.3 million.
How to Avoid Seasonal Depression
Nikolic’s general advice for those feeling flatter during the colder months is to “do the opposite of what that season does.”
- Increase natural light exposure
- Stay active with regular exercise, walking, or yoga
- Maintain healthy routines rather than changing them for the season
- Prioritise social connection
“Social connection is probably some of the holy grail in psychology across the board—being connected and bonded with others,” Nikolic said.
For more serious cases, treatments such as light therapy are available, but Nikolic urges people to see a psychologist if they are struggling.
