Seasonal depression is a disorder associated with a particular time of year.
It affects between 0.4 and 9.7 per cent of people, mostly in northern latitudes, and genetic factors play a role in the development of this disorder. There is a distinction between autumn (winter) and spring (summer) depression. Seasonal depression is characterised by depressed mood, reduced performance and a feeling of persistent fatigue at certain times of the year.
I would like to say a few additional words about fatigue. If you feel tired after a hard day's work and decide to take a few days off, there is nothing wrong with that. But if you feel exhausted on Monday, after a weekend off, and your holiday is no longer helping, worry about your health.
Note also the persistent feeling of sleep deprivation, when after sleeping for 7-9 hours, you wake up without rest. Daytime sleepiness is one of the most common signs of seasonal mood disorder. So if you still don't want to go to work, if you're tired of doing household chores, if you don't enjoy anything anymore, if you find it hard to study, if you find it difficult to communicate, if you're finding it hard to lead a normal life in your usual environment - seek immediate medical attention, preferably from a specialist mental health professional. Find out the cause of your disorder.
Depression, like any illness, gets worse if left untreated. It leads to more and more gloomy thoughts, despair, guilt, feelings of inferiority, and even loss of the will to live. It should be stressed that depression can manifest itself in quite atypical ways. Often, the patient experiences more physical changes, such as chest, head and stomach pain, while mood changes, such as disturbed sleep, come second.
Such depression, where physical symptoms overshadow mental disability, is often untreatable because people simply go to the wrong specialist.
Doctors carry out a thorough examination to diagnose seasonal depression. They ask many questions about moods, seasonal changes in thoughts and behaviour, lifestyle, social status, sleep and eating disorders. They also carry out tests to check for other illnesses that may affect the symptoms of depression or mania. If the symptoms last for at least two consecutive years, could not have been caused by other illnesses, and are specific to a certain time of year, the person is considered to have seasonal depression.
