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Seasonal Affective Disorder · Millennial Mental Health Channel

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Speaker 1: They're eating the dogs. They're eating the dogs. This is
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Speaker 1: Millennial Mental Health Channel. I'm doctor Justin Romano, a child
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Speaker 1: and adolescent psychiatry fellow.
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Speaker 2: And I'm Ati Koreo, a licence clinical therapist. Our podcast
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Speaker 2: is here because we wanted to start a much need
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Speaker 2: to conversation about mental health.
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Speaker 1: Our goal is to teach you as much as we
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Speaker 1: can by sharing our own experiences and interviewing experts in
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Speaker 1: the mental health field. We will discuss topics like mood disorders,
0:27
Speaker 1: psychotic disorders, substance use, personality disorders, and many more.
0:30
Speaker 2: Millennial Mental Health Channel buy Millennials for everyone. We hope
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Speaker 2: you enjoyed today's episode.
0:37
Speaker 1: MMHD is a production of Speaker from iHeartMedia.
0:41
Speaker 2: I Heart mir I.
0:44
Speaker 1: Couldn't help myself.
0:46
Speaker 2: We're keeping that in hold. I did that for you.
0:50
Speaker 1: Because I knew that you'd get a kick out of
0:54
Speaker 1: I hear you got some shout outs for today.
0:56
Speaker 2: I got one shout out to my lovely sister. That's it,
1:00
Speaker 2: shout out to her. She was upset she didn't get
1:02
Speaker 2: a shout out in the last episode, so she can
1:05
Speaker 2: get her shout out at the very beginning.
1:07
Speaker 1: I got one shout out too. I know a couple
1:09
Speaker 1: episodes back, we shouted out Uncle Calvin, my father in law,
1:13
Speaker 1: but also his wife, Amy listens to a ton of
1:15
Speaker 1: these episodes and it has been a huge supporter too,
1:17
Speaker 1: so I wanted to spread the love to her. Thank
1:20
Speaker 1: you so much for listening.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks for listening to Amy. What do we got today?
1:24
Speaker 2: What are we talking about?
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Speaker 1: I don't know, man, what are we What are you
1:27
Speaker 1: gonna make an episode? Yeah, We're just going to ramble
1:31
Speaker 1: and just make stuff up for thirty minutes.
1:33
Speaker 2: Oh God, ask people to turn it off if we
1:36
Speaker 2: did that. Well, what we really are talking about. We've
1:41
Speaker 2: done this episode in the past. We actually did this
1:44
Speaker 2: long time ago, back before we are what we are today.
1:48
Speaker 2: But I told Jessin it might be a good idea
1:50
Speaker 2: to bring it back. It is that time of the year.
1:52
Speaker 2: This impacts a portion of the country. I didn't look
1:55
Speaker 2: up what regions specifically, but it is prevalent and it's
1:59
Speaker 2: seasonal effect disorder. I live in Oregon. Justin's in Colorado,
2:03
Speaker 2: except I think Justin Actually Colorado gets a lot of
2:05
Speaker 2: sun technically like three hundred days a year. Yeah, but
2:10
Speaker 2: Oregon does not. And I think we're hitting that patch
2:13
Speaker 2: where we're mostly going to have clouds between now and
2:16
Speaker 2: like March or April. I personally love this weather, but
2:19
Speaker 2: not everybody does. And after having a very sunny and
2:22
Speaker 2: warm summer, we start to experience changes. A lot of
2:25
Speaker 2: people start to experience changes. It is a very real thing.
2:29
Speaker 2: I do see a lot of teens working, you know,
2:31
Speaker 2: in the different clasics I've worked at, are different. At
2:33
Speaker 2: the hospital and now at the school that definitely have
2:37
Speaker 2: SAD are impacted by the weather. Maybe it's not full
2:41
Speaker 2: blown seasonal effective disorder, but they are impacted. Obviously. Another factor,
2:46
Speaker 2: because it does coincide with the start of school, is
2:48
Speaker 2: the start of school, So maybe how they're being impacted
2:51
Speaker 2: does have to do more with school being a big
2:53
Speaker 2: stressor But it is important to notice that this happens
2:57
Speaker 2: like the changing of the weather. It gets dark really early.
3:01
Speaker 2: Like that kind of stuff impacts you, It impacts people.
3:04
Speaker 2: Just think of it this way here in Oregon, and
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Speaker 2: I know it's similar in other places. But for me,
3:08
Speaker 2: you know, we get to daylight saving time and next thing,
3:10
Speaker 2: I know, the clock hits four fifty pm and it's
3:13
Speaker 2: pitch black. And you do that for you know, months
3:16
Speaker 2: at a time, weeks at a time, it does start
3:20
Speaker 2: to drain on you a little bit. So there's things
3:21
Speaker 2: you can do, there's ways you can get help. But
3:23
Speaker 2: we kind of wanted to do this as a public
3:25
Speaker 2: service announcement. Seasonal effective disorder is a real thing. We'll
3:29
Speaker 2: actually learn a little more about where it is in
3:31
Speaker 2: the DSM. But actually, before I pass it to you,
3:33
Speaker 2: justin I did want to say this is suicide Prevention month,
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Speaker 2: and I wanted to acknowledge that it is really important.
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Speaker 2: If you know somebody or are somebody who's struggling, the
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Speaker 2: National Suicide Lifeline nine eight eight is there for you.
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Speaker 2: But really wanted to highlight that it is I think
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Speaker 2: an important thing that we acknowledge. It is a tough
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Speaker 2: part of the job that you know, some of our kids,
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Speaker 2: our teens do deal with that. But yeah, just want
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Speaker 2: to acknowledge that September is suicide prevention month.
3:58
Speaker 1: You bring up a great point that there are a
3:59
Speaker 1: lot of things going on at this time of the year.
4:02
Speaker 1: School starting, weather's changing, sunlight's changing, and it's a lot
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Speaker 1: a lot more stressful. And I noticed that this time
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Speaker 1: of year, it tends to be my busiest time of
4:12
Speaker 1: year because people are struggling more and mental health is
4:16
Speaker 1: going downwards, especially after the high of the summer. I
4:20
Speaker 1: know personally I tend to get a little bit down
4:24
Speaker 1: this time of year too. It really happened for the
4:26
Speaker 1: first time where I thought, like, the first time I
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Speaker 1: really ever thought to myself, like, am I depressed? Was
4:33
Speaker 1: when I was in residency and it was fall and
4:35
Speaker 1: everything was changing after I had a really good summer,
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Speaker 1: And so I feel it too, the loss of sunlight,
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Speaker 1: summer's ending. There's kind of a melancholy in the air,
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Speaker 1: a certain feel in the air that's just somewhat different,
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Speaker 1: and so we want to talk about it, help other
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Speaker 1: people understand that it's normal. It's a normal thing that
4:53
Speaker 1: a lot of people go through, and to give you
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Speaker 1: some ideas of how to get help. If you feel
4:57
Speaker 1: like this is happening to you too.
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Speaker 2: You pretty much just say adjustin. But just like if
5:01
Speaker 2: this impacts you, there's nothing wrong with you, Like there's
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Speaker 2: I think people almost feel like embarrassed of like, oh
5:05
Speaker 2: the weather makes me sad, like it makes people sad,
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Speaker 2: like it is tough, So it's totally fine, there's nothing
5:12
Speaker 2: wrong with it. But a definition will probably use SAD
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Speaker 2: and seasonal effective disorder interchangeably throughout the episode, but seasonal
5:20
Speaker 2: effective disorder is a type of the depression that occurs
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Speaker 2: during specific seasons, usually during the fall and winter. It's
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Speaker 2: characterized by a seasonal pattern of depressive episodes that typically
5:31
Speaker 2: start in that late fall or wintertime kind of when
5:34
Speaker 2: like November December run into each each other January, and
5:38
Speaker 2: then things to it tend to improve in the spring
5:40
Speaker 2: or in the summer when we get more sunlight.
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Speaker 1: Seasonal effective disorder is actually better diagnosed as major depressive
5:47
Speaker 1: disorder with seasonal pattern in the DSM five, So that's
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Speaker 1: like the official diagnosis. It's a subtype of depression related
5:55
Speaker 1: to mood changes that are linked to seasonal changes. The
5:58
Speaker 1: diagnostics specify with seasonal pattern can describe a seasonal pattern
6:03
Speaker 1: of symptoms in both major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder,
6:07
Speaker 1: because there's two major types of depression, major depressive disorder
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Speaker 1: and bipolar depression, and so essentially this can go with
6:14
Speaker 1: either one.
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Speaker 2: Something I learned in researching SAD is not actually its
6:18
Speaker 2: own diagnosis in the DSM five. This was new for me.
6:22
Speaker 2: I pulled up my electronic version of the DSM five,
6:26
Speaker 2: I did the control f to try to find seasonal
6:28
Speaker 2: effective disorder and did not find it, and I was like,
6:31
Speaker 2: what the fuck what are we doing? So then I
6:33
Speaker 2: had to do a quick Google search and I learned
6:35
Speaker 2: something new. You would think at this point I would
6:37
Speaker 2: have a better idea of it, but we learned new
6:39
Speaker 2: shit all the time, so I thought that was pretty
6:41
Speaker 2: cool to share. I liked that little like nerding out
6:45
Speaker 2: moment of like, oh, this is new in the DSM.
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Speaker 2: Oh I had no idea because I have that book
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Speaker 2: on my desk every single day. So it's fun to
6:52
Speaker 2: learn new things.
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Speaker 1: And when I think the last time we did this
6:54
Speaker 1: episode was when we were still on the DSM five
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Speaker 1: before the textra vision the tr came out, So yeah,
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Speaker 1: that did that change it too much? That's how long
7:04
Speaker 1: it's been. Yeah, because that's been a couple of years
7:06
Speaker 1: since they out of the Tryah.
7:07
Speaker 2: I was explaining to a student the other day they
7:10
Speaker 2: saw my big DSM in my bookshelf and then they're like, oh,
7:15
Speaker 2: is that the DS sounds like it is. Here's my
7:17
Speaker 2: pocket version. They're like, wow, that's so cool. I was like, yeah,
7:20
Speaker 2: it's interesting because when I was in college, they moved
7:23
Speaker 2: from the four to the five. So that's now. It
7:25
Speaker 2: was in twenty thirteen, I think is when the change came.
7:28
Speaker 2: So now we're eleven years later. Who knows when the
7:31
Speaker 2: next one because I don't know how much time was
7:32
Speaker 2: between the three and the four. Eleven years feels like
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Speaker 2: a chunk of time, but it feels like the text revised,
7:37
Speaker 2: the tr version kind of buys them a little more
7:40
Speaker 2: time before they have to consider making any big changes.
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Speaker 1: And I at my job, there's a bookshelf just full
7:47
Speaker 1: of old books, and there's actually an old copy of
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Speaker 1: the DSM three.
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Speaker 2: Cool.
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Speaker 1: I was pretty pumped. I'm going to go through it
7:53
Speaker 1: one day when I have extra time, which is a
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Speaker 1: joke because I never had extra.
7:56
Speaker 2: Time, but I thought it was kind of cool. Yeah,
8:00
Speaker 2: that is cool.
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Speaker 1: So from the American Psychiatric Association, common symptoms of SAD
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Speaker 1: include fatigue even with too much sleep, so even though
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Speaker 1: you're sleeping all day, you're still tired, some weight gain
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Speaker 1: associated with overeating and carbohydrate cravings. SAD symptoms can vary
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Speaker 1: from mild to severe and can include many symptoms similar
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Speaker 1: to major depressive disorder, such as feeling sad or having
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Speaker 1: a depressed mood.
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Speaker 2: Next is having a loss of interest or pleasure and
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Speaker 2: activities that you previously enjoyed.
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Speaker 1: Change is an appetite, usually eating more and craving those carbohydrates.
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Speaker 2: The change in sleep that justin mentioned, it's usually sleeping
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Speaker 2: too much. So you get kids that'll come into your
8:42
Speaker 2: office that'll say, like, I slept twelve hours last night.
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Speaker 2: I don't know why, how can I still be tired?
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Speaker 1: And on that note too, I just noticed that the
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Speaker 1: summer sleep schedule, going back to the school sleep schedule
8:55
Speaker 1: is so rough on kids. Yes, go to sleep at
9:00
Speaker 1: two to three am, waking up at noon and then
9:03
Speaker 1: having to all of a sudden get up at six
9:04
Speaker 1: am for school is a wild shift for young people
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Speaker 1: to have to make, and like, I would be miserable
9:11
Speaker 1: if I had to do that, So I feel for
9:13
Speaker 1: all you you people out there who have to make
9:15
Speaker 1: those big changes in your sleep schedule.
9:18
Speaker 2: There's a school in our area that I think, or
9:20
Speaker 2: a couple of schools the school district there's implementing some changes.
9:23
Speaker 2: So I think their older kids are starting a little later,
9:26
Speaker 2: and then their younger kids are starting a little earlier
9:29
Speaker 2: because apparently for like certain age ranges that earlier is better,
9:33
Speaker 2: and I guess we might have a little bit of
9:34
Speaker 2: that in our school district. Our high school starts at
9:37
Speaker 2: eight thirty nice, whereas our elementary school I think they
9:40
Speaker 2: started at like seven fifty. So I don't know. It
9:44
Speaker 2: definitely depends on the age. But for us working with teenagers, yeah, twelve,
9:49
Speaker 2: going to leap at midnight, waking up at ten eleven
9:53
Speaker 2: twelve in the afternoon and then having to shift that
9:55
Speaker 2: by five hours even more rough.
9:59
Speaker 1: That's rough. It's hard brain. Plus, you're absolutely right, A
10:03
Speaker 1: lot of studies have shown that a later start for
10:05
Speaker 1: adolescence in school really helps our school performance. So loss
10:10
Speaker 1: of energy back to symptoms of seasonal effective disorder, loss
10:14
Speaker 1: of energy or increased fatigue despite increased sleep hours.
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Speaker 2: Another one is increase in purposeless physical activity. This was
10:23
Speaker 2: an interesting one, So basically inability to sit still, you're pacing,
10:27
Speaker 2: hand ringing right like you're fidgeting with your hands, or
10:30
Speaker 2: slowed movements or speech. These actions definitely can be severe,
10:34
Speaker 2: or they must be severe enough to be observable by
10:36
Speaker 2: others to count as the criteria.
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Speaker 1: Sometimes seasonal effective disorder can have feelings of worthlessness or guiltiness.
10:44
Speaker 2: There's also difficulty thinking, concentrating, or making decisions, very common
10:49
Speaker 2: that we see with teens that get diagnosed with major
10:52
Speaker 2: depressive disorder without the seasonal pattern, and on.
10:55
Speaker 1: The more extreme end of things, sometimes people can even
10:58
Speaker 1: have thoughts of death and suicide.
11:00
Speaker 2: Important to remember, just because someone is diagnosed as depression,
11:03
Speaker 2: just because they have depressive symptoms, diagnosis of depression does
11:06
Speaker 2: not equal thoughts of death and suicide. I think a
11:08
Speaker 2: lot of people worry about that. I think a lot
11:11
Speaker 2: of parents worry about that too. We've mentioned it before,
11:13
Speaker 2: but there's like this assumption like, well, depression now means
11:16
Speaker 2: they're suicidal, and now I'm really scared for my kid.
11:19
Speaker 2: We can pump the brakes a little bit. It doesn't
11:21
Speaker 2: automatically mean that it might be part of it. It
11:23
Speaker 2: also might not be. You don't have to have every
11:25
Speaker 2: criteria to be clinically diagnosed. So important reminder.
11:29
Speaker 1: Some stats and facts about seasonal affective disorder, So the prevalence,
11:33
Speaker 1: how many people actually get it. Approximately five percent of
11:37
Speaker 1: adults in the United States experience seasonal effective disorder, and
11:41
Speaker 1: this is according to the American Psychiatric Association.
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Speaker 2: Ten to twenty percent of people may experience milder forms
11:47
Speaker 2: of seasonal mood changes, and women are more likely to
11:50
Speaker 2: be diagnosed, with sixty to ninety percent of cases occurring
11:53
Speaker 2: in women.
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Speaker 1: The typical age of onset is between age eighteen and thirty,
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Speaker 1: but it can also have at any time, at any
12:01
Speaker 1: point in someone's.
12:02
Speaker 2: Life, maybe specifically with teenagers like we work with, like
12:06
Speaker 2: twelve to sixteen, seventeen eighteen. Your location may have an
12:11
Speaker 2: impact on it, So I talked about it earlier of
12:12
Speaker 2: like what parts of the country may experience it more.
12:16
Speaker 2: But research has shown that the farther from the equator,
12:18
Speaker 2: the higher the prevalence. So an example that they give
12:21
Speaker 2: is one percent of people in Florida diagnosed or it's
12:24
Speaker 2: prevalent in Florida see no effective disorder, while in Alaska
12:29
Speaker 2: it's up to like nine percent of people will get
12:31
Speaker 2: impacted by it. Big difference.
12:33
Speaker 1: That's fascinating to me how big that difference is between
12:37
Speaker 1: Florida and Alaska. And I know that I've mentioned it
12:40
Speaker 1: on the show in the past that I did a
12:42
Speaker 1: rotation up in Alaska when I was in medical school
12:45
Speaker 1: and it was in the spring, so it was April
12:49
Speaker 1: May time period, and getting used to the sun going
12:53
Speaker 1: down at midnight was wild for me. It was so
12:56
Speaker 1: much different than anything I'd ever experienced. And I thought,
12:59
Speaker 1: I am so glad i am on this side, on
13:01
Speaker 1: the spring side, and not on the fall side and
13:05
Speaker 1: winter side when there's times in Alaska where the sun
13:08
Speaker 1: never rises. Oh it's just completely totally dark.
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Speaker 2: No, thank you, that would probably get me. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: And then typical duration of symptoms for seasonal affective disorder
13:18
Speaker 1: is about four to five months out of the year,
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Speaker 1: So that's a long time, a long time for people
13:22
Speaker 1: to be struggling and suffering.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, almost half the year. Some biological and environmental factors.
13:27
Speaker 2: One could be light exposure, so or do Sunlight can
13:30
Speaker 2: disrupt your circadian rhythm and your serotonin level. So, like
13:33
Speaker 2: Justin was saying, he was in Alaska during the springtime,
13:36
Speaker 2: but if you're there in the full time and you're
13:37
Speaker 2: getting minimal sunlight like the least like in the whole country,
13:42
Speaker 2: that can have any huge impact on you.
13:44
Speaker 1: And I was even trying to look into the mechanism
13:46
Speaker 1: of this, and they think that sunlight actually induces your
13:52
Speaker 1: monoamine oxidase, which is an enzyme that breaks down your serotonin.
13:58
Speaker 1: And your different catcola means, of course, so it actually
14:03
Speaker 1: can enhance this enzyme to break down your serotonin and
14:07
Speaker 1: drop your serotonin levels in your brain. We're not one
14:10
Speaker 1: hundred percent sure of the mechanism of why seasonal affective
14:13
Speaker 1: disorder happens, but I think it's fascinating that the light
14:17
Speaker 1: that comes in through our eyes actually changes the hormone
14:21
Speaker 1: balance in our brains. That's just crazy to me.
14:25
Speaker 2: It sounded like I knew what you were talking about
14:26
Speaker 2: right with my.
14:27
Speaker 1: Mes, Yeah, you passed it off. Also, people who with
14:33
Speaker 1: seasonal effective disorder produce too much melatonin, And I know
14:37
Speaker 1: we talked about people who are oversleeping, sleeping too much
14:40
Speaker 1: but still feel depressed, and that likely is because they're
14:44
Speaker 1: overproducing melatonin in those situations, it makes sense.
14:47
Speaker 2: And then the last environmental factor in biological factor that
14:50
Speaker 2: we'll mention is vitamin D deficiency. If you know people
14:53
Speaker 2: who live in Oregon or the Pacific northwestern places where
14:55
Speaker 2: we get a lot of clouds and rain, they tend
14:58
Speaker 2: to talk about the fact that they might be on
14:59
Speaker 2: a vitamin D supplement, So lower levels of some light
15:03
Speaker 2: can contribute to a vitamin D deficiency. I actually had
15:06
Speaker 2: a student and they family tell me recently that they
15:09
Speaker 2: had recently started taking vitamin D supplement and that they
15:13
Speaker 2: were hopeful about these next coming months and the impact
15:17
Speaker 2: on their mental health.
15:18
Speaker 1: I actually had a professor in my first year at
15:20
Speaker 1: medical school who was very aware of the fact that
15:23
Speaker 1: in Laramie, Wyoming, where I did my first year, that
15:26
Speaker 1: there isn't a lot of sun in the winter, and
15:28
Speaker 1: he would actually go out in the cold in his
15:32
Speaker 1: underwear and I'm not really sure why he would do,
15:35
Speaker 1: but he would hold his ears. I don't remember why
15:38
Speaker 1: he did that, but he would hold his ears and
15:40
Speaker 1: like do squats out in his yard almost naked to
15:45
Speaker 1: try and get more vitamin D production. That was his
15:48
Speaker 1: way of trying to combat the seasonal affect of disorder.
15:52
Speaker 2: Was this related to seasonal factor disorder? Are you getting
15:54
Speaker 2: in confused with something else?
15:56
Speaker 1: He was trying to get more vitamin D by exposing his.
15:59
Speaker 2: Oh, so he wanted to sell in his skin to
16:01
Speaker 2: be exposed. Yeah.
16:03
Speaker 1: He also really was very detailed about telling me how
16:07
Speaker 1: often he measured his urine output. Is kind of strange, dude.
16:12
Speaker 1: We were like, do you want to know what my
16:13
Speaker 1: maximum urine output has? Spin like I really don't care.
16:18
Speaker 2: Like year and a half, like fluid ounce, yeah, yeah,
16:21
Speaker 2: it was measure.
16:23
Speaker 1: I think it was around a lider and a half.
16:25
Speaker 2: What is that announces I needed?
16:26
Speaker 1: Like, oh, let's check here. Fifty ounce.
16:34
Speaker 2: That was his max.
16:35
Speaker 1: That was probably after you know, a big night.
16:37
Speaker 2: So and an unrelated note treatment for sad how do
16:43
Speaker 2: we feel better without needing to go outside in our underwear,
16:47
Speaker 2: pulling down our ears and trying to get as much
16:49
Speaker 2: sunlight as possible. I guess kind of related light therapy.
16:53
Speaker 2: Once that he said it could be effective in sixty
16:55
Speaker 2: to eighty percent of cases. It might be a little
16:58
Speaker 2: more of a placebo effect, but that's totally fine. Placebo
17:01
Speaker 2: effects in my book count If you feel better, that's
17:04
Speaker 2: all I care about.
17:05
Speaker 1: I'm really fascinated by base travel. Are we doing this
17:10
Speaker 1: with astronauts? Are we trying to replicate conditions on the
17:13
Speaker 1: Earth because our bodies are so in tune with the
17:18
Speaker 1: Earth and the different cycles of the Earth, And if
17:20
Speaker 1: we completely change that, how is that going to work
17:23
Speaker 1: in space? So I'm always curious about how those things
17:26
Speaker 1: are going to impact space travel. Plus sixty to eighty
17:32
Speaker 1: percent effectiveness, or I would say, that's even more effective
17:36
Speaker 1: than most antidepressant medications too. So if you're an all
17:40
Speaker 1: natural person and you have seasonal components of your depression
17:44
Speaker 1: and you want to try light therapy, there are hardly
17:47
Speaker 1: any side effects possible and it's a very effective thing.
17:51
Speaker 1: In combination, we always recommend therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy
17:56
Speaker 1: has been a type of therapy that has been shown
17:58
Speaker 1: and improven treatment for season one effective disorder too.
18:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, can you tell me more about medications or are
18:03
Speaker 2: we just are we using similar ones for major depression
18:06
Speaker 2: and the seasonal effective disorder.
18:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, Typically, like SSRIs, the medicines that increase that serotonin
18:13
Speaker 1: in your brain can be effective for seasonal effective disorder.
18:16
Speaker 1: And I also learned in residency that there's an old
18:19
Speaker 1: depression medicine called well butrin. It tends to be a
18:22
Speaker 1: little bit more of an activating gives you a little
18:24
Speaker 1: bit more energy. Actually doesn't impact your serotonin system as much,
18:29
Speaker 1: but more your dopamine and norepinephrine systems in your brain.
18:33
Speaker 1: That's actually a very effective medicine for seasonal effective disorder too.
18:36
Speaker 1: So there are a couple of good options if that
18:39
Speaker 1: is what you want to try.
18:40
Speaker 2: And then last thing we've talked about it and you
18:43
Speaker 2: might be familiar already, but vitamin D supplements they might
18:45
Speaker 2: help mitigate the effects of SAD. It seems to be
18:48
Speaker 2: pretty common for people who maybe don't have a chance
18:51
Speaker 2: to see a therapist just kind of know that about
18:53
Speaker 2: themselves that each year around the winter time, they start
18:55
Speaker 2: to get a little more low, so they have that
18:57
Speaker 2: on hand already. Seems to be effective. I can't say
19:01
Speaker 2: one way or the other their experience, but seems to
19:03
Speaker 2: be effective.
19:04
Speaker 1: All natural way of getting that vitamin D is exposing
19:07
Speaker 1: your skin to direct sunlight. If you do have seasonal
19:10
Speaker 1: effective disorder, it's important to be mindful of it and say, Okay,
19:14
Speaker 1: I'm starting to get a little bit less light exposure.
19:16
Speaker 1: Maybe I should spend a little more time outside. Maybe
19:18
Speaker 1: I should get a little bit more light on my skin.
19:21
Speaker 1: That could be something that helps. Now bear in mind,
19:24
Speaker 1: my mother was actually a nurse for a dermatologist, so
19:27
Speaker 1: she would always say, like, don't get too much sun
19:29
Speaker 1: contact because it increase your risk for skin cancer. True,
19:33
Speaker 1: but it can also help give you that vitamin D
19:35
Speaker 1: because your your skin makes vitamin D with direct sunlight
19:38
Speaker 1: exposure or sunscreen too, but then you don't make as
19:41
Speaker 1: much vitamin D it blocks those blocks those.
19:44
Speaker 2: Right if you do, damn if you don't. Other things
19:48
Speaker 2: to consider if you have seasonal depression. Right, you've talked
19:51
Speaker 2: about the light box, We've talked about talking to your doctor.
19:53
Speaker 2: We've talked about going to therapy. It doesn't have to
19:56
Speaker 2: be all three can only just can be just one
19:58
Speaker 2: of them. But definitely, if you start to notice this
20:01
Speaker 2: is a pattern, we get to October November, I am
20:03
Speaker 2: feeling impacted. It's okay to try to ask for help
20:06
Speaker 2: and know that it's not weird, it's not random, it's
20:09
Speaker 2: not a fake thing. It's a very real thing that
20:11
Speaker 2: impacts a lot of people.
20:12
Speaker 1: So one of our favorite things on this show is
20:14
Speaker 1: talking about different celebrities that have come out and talked
20:17
Speaker 1: about their experiences. And the first celebrity we want to
20:21
Speaker 1: talk about is Kristin Bell. And although she's more widely
20:25
Speaker 1: known for her advocacy around mental health and anxiety, Kristin
20:28
Speaker 1: Bell has spoken about experiencing seasonal mood changes that resemble
20:33
Speaker 1: seasonal effective disorder, often referring to her need for more
20:36
Speaker 1: light and how the winter months affect her her mental
20:40
Speaker 1: health negatively.
20:41
Speaker 2: Another one is Adele. She's mentioned a few times how
20:44
Speaker 2: much sunny Los Angeles has positively impacted her mental health,
20:48
Speaker 2: so that might be her roundabout way of saying that
20:50
Speaker 2: she gets impacted by the seasonal I will say, in researching,
20:54
Speaker 2: there's a number of celebrities who have made comments saying
20:56
Speaker 2: that the colder, darker months impact them, but they haven't
21:00
Speaker 2: really explicitly mentioned seasonal effective disorders, so you can infer.
21:04
Speaker 2: But just wanted to mention that usually when when Justin
21:07
Speaker 2: or I do research and we see, you know, celebrities
21:10
Speaker 2: related to certain disorders, they'll explicitly say it. This was
21:14
Speaker 2: one where it just was kind of like you could
21:16
Speaker 2: take a guess and probably be right.
21:19
Speaker 1: It's so funny looking up different celebrities and their mental
21:22
Speaker 1: health disorders and which topics just have lists and listen
21:26
Speaker 1: lists of people who have come out and said like
21:28
Speaker 1: especially like bipolar disorder, regular depression, anxiety. You can take
21:32
Speaker 1: your pick of celebrities you want to talk about who
21:34
Speaker 1: have had those things.
21:35
Speaker 2: But once you.
21:36
Speaker 1: Start getting into a little bit more of the niche diagnoses,
21:39
Speaker 1: it's harder to find and it sounds like seasonal effective
21:42
Speaker 1: disorder is not something that's on a lot of people's radars,
21:45
Speaker 1: which is one of the reasons why we wanted to
21:47
Speaker 1: do this episode. Bring a little bit more attention to
21:49
Speaker 1: it and tell people that it's okay, it's a normal
21:51
Speaker 1: thing that happens.
21:53
Speaker 2: Absolutely, that's our first take on point. It's fairly common
21:57
Speaker 2: and it's definitely treatable. Don't be afraid to ask for
22:00
Speaker 2: help when it comes to seasonal effective disorder.
22:02
Speaker 1: If you notice that you have mental health changes around
22:04
Speaker 1: certain times of the year, consider seeking help and getting
22:08
Speaker 1: help for this, because you shouldn't have to suffer alone.
22:11
Speaker 2: And while seasonal effective disorder is not its own diagnosis,
22:14
Speaker 2: that doesn't mean it's any less important and that you
22:16
Speaker 2: shouldn't get help. You should definitely get help. I tell
22:19
Speaker 2: students all the time, so many students when I talk
22:22
Speaker 2: with them, so many teens over the years, will say like, ah,
22:25
Speaker 2: this is really dumb. I don't want to say it,
22:26
Speaker 2: and I have to remind them if it's impacting you,
22:29
Speaker 2: if you're having a hard time, it is not dumb.
22:32
Speaker 2: It is important. I want to know about it so
22:34
Speaker 2: we can talk about it and it gets you some help.
22:36
Speaker 2: So same thing with seasonal effective disorder. It's not its
22:39
Speaker 2: own diagnosis, but it's still very important. You still deserve
22:42
Speaker 2: to get help, and it's okay to be struggling with
22:44
Speaker 2: that because it's a very real thing.
22:46
Speaker 1: Perception is reality. If you're feeling like things are bad
22:50
Speaker 1: during a certain time of year, then go with it.
22:53
Speaker 2: Well, thank you all. We hope this impacts somebody out
22:56
Speaker 2: there listening and understands that this could be a real
22:59
Speaker 2: thing that's on its way and how to treat it.
23:01
Speaker 2: We appreciate you all for listening. On Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
23:04
Speaker 2: whatever app you use, you know the you know the
23:06
Speaker 2: drill we're on there. Feel free to leave us a
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23:11
Speaker 2: whatever it is you do on your app. On social media, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok,
23:16
Speaker 2: YouTube at Millennial MHC and MILLENNIALIMHC dot com. One last time,
23:21
Speaker 2: thank y'all for listening. Again, this is suicide Prevention Month.
23:25
Speaker 2: We hope that if you need help or you know
23:26
Speaker 2: someone that needs help, that they reach out and call
23:29
Speaker 2: the lifeline or get community or county resources and remember,
23:33
Speaker 2: take care of all mentals.