Most people, it seems, experience a certain amount of what we regularly refer to as the “blahs” during the winter. Winter months in places where winter temperatures really do happen are a veritable breeding ground for low mood.

We leave work and it’s dark by the time we make the commute home, if not when we walk out the door of the office. Gray skies and tree branches--despite the popularity of blue-gray color schemes indoors, it just doesn’t work as well outside. Cold temperatures force us indoors when we might otherwise be frolicking in the sunshine. True blue skies, rich green leaves and grasses, the rainbow of colors in the outdoors and the outfits, fresh air...we miss them when they’re gone.

Add to that the stress of the to-do lists and abundance of company around the holidays, or, in some cases, the lack of company or grieving loved ones. Then throw in the excess of comfort foods, which are really only comforting in the moment, but don’t do our bodies a lick of good in the aftermath.

It’s the perfect storm for irritability, anxiety, sadness, and, for some people, the deeper, harder-to-shake Seasonal Affective Disorder (aptly acronymed SAD).

Rush University Medical Center in northern Illinois (well-versed in surviving long winters) describes the difference.

Winter blues

The most common symptoms are general sadness and a lack of energy. Other symptoms of the winter blues include the following:

• Difficulty sleeping
• Feeling less social than usual
• Difficulty taking initiative

SAD

• Mood that is down or depressed most of the day, nearly every day
• Loss of interest in activities you typically enjoy
• Withdrawing and isolating yourself from friends and family
• Struggling to focus and perform at work or home
• Feeling constantly fatigued and lethargic
• Feeling hopeless about the future
• Having suicidal thoughts 

It gets serious, and when it happens every year, as it very well may if SAD is what you’re dealing with, it can become dangerous.

Sunshine is more than just a visual happy maker and a warming tool. When your skin is exposed to sunlight, it makes vitamin D from cholesterol. The sun's ultraviolet B (UVB) rays hit cholesterol in the skin cells, providing the energy for vitamin D synthesis to occur.

Exposure to less natural light and, hence, vitamin D can really cause problems, like

• dips in serotonin, a neurotransmitter that regulates mood
• disruptions in circadian rhythms (your body’s internal clock), which help control sleep-wake cycles, and
• alterations in melatonin, a hormone associated with both mood and sleep, among other issues.

Treating SAD