Yesterday I received an old patient friend in the outpatient clinic. As soon as I entered the clinic, I was filled with sorrow. I asked her if she had been upset recently? She was so desperate that she wanted to cry and told me: "Doctor, do you think we depression patients cannot overcome this season? At this time of each year, we will aggravate the condition. I don't know if it has recurred or worsened? Doctor, what's going on? Is there any way to prevent it?"
This patient may be talking about seasonal depression we often call, also known as seasonal emotional disorder, which usually starts in autumn and worsens in winter. Why are our emotions affected by the season? Can we bear this blame this season?
1. The physiological mechanism of "harm spring and sad autumn"
It is autumn. With the drop in temperature and the changes in climate, people's metabolism and physiological skills will gradually slow down. After getting up in the morning, you will feel depressed emotions such as loss, pessimism, and anxiety, especially on depressed patients and friends.
Seasonal changes will make many people feel depressed to varying degrees. This is actually a physiological problem and the law of nature. Seasonal changes will affect our nerve constitution and hormone levels in our body. Insufficient light will affect the secretion of three substances in the human body, and thus affect our emotions.
1, serotonin secretion decreases
serotonin is a natural mood regulator that can make our emotions more stable and relaxed.
and low serotonin levels will lead to low appetite, inattention, prone to anxiety, anger, etc.
2, vitamin D secretion decreases
Insufficient vitamin D can also bring depression.
As the sun decreases, people with SAD produce less vitamin D, affecting the activity of serotonin.
3. Melatonin secretion increases
melatonin is generally secreted at night and can promote sleep.
In autumn and winter, the sunlight becomes less and the melatonin secretion increases, so people are prone to sleepiness during the day.
Add up several reasons, the arrival of autumn and winter can easily make people feel physical discomfort, unreasonable sadness and inexplicable depression.
2. Who is sensitive to seasonal depression?
1, female and young people
, especially introverted, sensitive, emotionally fragile, and new mothers who have just become mothers are easily affected
2, indoor workers
Seasonal depression is often related to insufficient light exposure time. The shortened time for the human body to receive sunlight will affect the secretion of melatonin in the pineal gland in the human brain, thereby leading to depression, sleep disorder , etc.
3. People with mental illnesses and emotional mental illnesses
People with mental illnesses are taking medication in time this season, and some will have minor fluctuations in their condition. If there are family members suffering from such mental illnesses in the family, they are also sensitive to seasonal depression.
3. How to deal with it?
When your seasonal depression has an impact on your work, study and life, you should seek professional help and treatment
When your depression is still in the normal range and does not have a diagnostic standard, you can relieve and improve it by the following methods.
1. Increase outdoor exercise. You can jog in full sun, play Tai Chi, play ball and other aerobic exercises
2. Indoor activities. You can invite friends and classmates to entertain each other on rainy days, increase communication with each other
3. You can eat some sweets appropriately, and appropriate dessert can increase a happy mood, such as chocolate, small cakes, etc.
4. Listen to more cheerful music to help relieve depression and depression
As for friends who are in the treatment stage of mental illness, once the condition recurs and recurs, they must ask for professional help and seek medical treatment in a timely manner.
