Homeopathy Today -
January 2003
by Miranda Castro, FSHom, RSHom(NA), CCH
 With the shorter, colder, cloudier days and the
longer nights of fall and winter, some people become unaccountably depressed.
It is only relatively recently that these people have been acknowledged as suffering
from a syndrome called Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD. Those living in the
Northern Hemisphere are particularly susceptible to SAD, and the further north
one lives, the more susceptible.
When the colder, darker weather of the fall and
winter months arrives, some people find they have to drag themselves out of bed
in the morning and they take longer to get going. They never feel as fully alive
as they do in the sunny, summer months. Their symptoms can start as early as
September or October and last until the following March or even April. Sunlight
is food and drink for the body and soul of these people, so that with the coming
of spring and the promise of more light, especially more sunlight, they come
alive again. They can even become overactive at this time, needing little sleep
and feeling almost maniacally happy.
Homeopaths have noted that some people are more
sensitive to light and to atmospheric pressures than others. They react to changes
in weather, feeling heavy, sluggish and depressed on a cloudy day and feeling
light, energetic, and happy on clear, sunny days. Some people even know what
the weather is before they open their eyes in the morning (before they open their
curtains!) Homeopaths take these individual responses to weather into account
when selecting a remedy. Just as no two patients with asthma or arthritis will
necessarily receive the same treatment, so no two patients with depression or
SAD will respond to the same homeopathic medicine.
SAD Symptoms
The symptoms of SAD differ slightly from an ordinary depression in that there's
an increase in appetite and subsequent weight gain. Other depressions are more
often accompanied by a loss of appetite.
Typical symptoms of SAD are:
• Depression with apathy—a loss of interest in things
and people that formerly gave pleasure and enjoyment.
• Loss of libido.
• Sluggishness—ranging from feeling heavy and tired
to overpoweringly sleepy.
• Sleep is unrefreshing—exhaustion isn't relieved
by sleep and they wake feeling tired.
• Difficulty in concentrating and doing mental work.
• Loss of mental creativity.
• Craving for heavy foods, for foods high in carbohydrates
(bread and pastry), and for sweet things (candy, cookies, and cakes).
• Feeling generally worse in the autumn and winter,
in the dark and the cold.
• Feeling generally better in the spring, for light,
especially for sunshine.
Body clocks
We all need light, but relatively little is known about the actual process
of how and why we need it. The pineal gland (which nestles in the center of
the brain) releases a hormone called melatonin, which is produced in the darkness
and inhibited by light. This hormone is instrumental in determining our body's
daily rhythms—in setting our body clock or Circadian rhythms—and affects our
patterns of sleeping and waking, our internal thermostats as well as our moods.
One of the causes of jetlag is thought to be a disruption of the production of
melatonin. Recent studies have found that a small (artificial) dose given in
the afternoon can make the body think it is time to sleep. We don't know if melatonin
is the cause of SAD—it is more likely that it is a symptom or marker of this
particular type of depression.
Dos and Don'ts for SAD Sufferers
Do
• Make winter sunshine a priority, especially if
you live and/or work in a dark or darkish environment. This may mean altering
or canceling plans to take advantage of any sun that does shine.
• Sit outside during your lunch hour (well wrapped-up
if it's cold and sunny!), and do the shopping and errands after work.
• Cancel cooking Sunday lunch to spend a sunny day
in the garden or a local park.
• Take frequent opportunities to spend a sunny day
in the country or by the sea.
• Take your annual vacation in the winter and travel
to sunnier climes. Even though the relief may be only temporary, it will help
you to get through those winter months.
• Take up a gentle, daily exercise routine (in the
summer months) and stick to it once autumn comes.
• Eat little and often, adding as much fresh fruit
and vegetables to the stodgy and sticky foods as you can.
• Organize your working environment near a window—whether
you work from home or an office. Consider changing your office (or even your
job) if you suffer from SAD and work in an air-conditioned building without windows.
• Sleep more but not too much more.
• Wear sunny, brightly-colored clothes (yellows,
oranges, and reds).
• Keep a journal—recording the weather and major
events in your life and how they affect you, your body, your feelings, and your
dreams. Writing is a powerful form of self-therapy that brings clarity and awareness.
Over time, patterns emerge that we are not necessarily aware of as we rush through
our lives.
• Learn a meditation or relaxation technique that
involves imagining a sunny place that you "visit" on a regular basis. You can
simply close your eyes and imagine yourself lying on a sun-drenched beach, in
a meadow, or by a lake or river. It is important not to underestimate the healing
power of the imagination on our physical and emotional bodies.
Don't
• Wear sunglasses outside (unless your eyes are
painfully sensitive to bright sunlight) as these cut down the amount of sunlight
and vitamin D that is absorbed through your eyes in the winter (and the summer)
months. |
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See the light!
There is a connection from the retina of the eye to the pineal gland
(via the nervous system) which is why it is so important that we "see the light"! "Light
therapy" has been found to help some people. The light has to be bright, although
in practice it is hard to mimic the amount of light we receive on a sunny day.
Light is measured in "lux" with the amount we receive on a sunny summer day
being about 100,000 lux and a clear spring morning giving around 10,000 lux!
Most homes have light levels between 100-300 lux, while well-lit offices generally
don't go above 700 lux.
Bright light treatment involves sitting for several
hours a day close to a powerful light source—a box of full-spectrum fluorescent
lights—in order to stimulate the retina and modify the secretion of melatonin.
Full-spectrum lighting mimics daylight by having extra ultraviolet lighting
in the tubes. It requires a minimum of 2,500 lux to be effective, and the brightness
recommended by researchers and clinicians for most people is 10,000 lux.
The website www.phothera.com/ptref.html
lists an impressive number of abstracts (summaries) relating to research
studies that focus on SAD, and it includes a myriad of studies on SAD
and the value of light therapy in particular. If you decide to purchase
a light box to help you through another long, dark winter then do your
research carefully as there are a tremendous number of websites selling
these products at a great variety of prices.
The whole picture
The endocrine (hormonal) system is a complex ruling system that is powerfully
interconnected and directly affected by our thoughts and our feelings. It is
important to step back and look at the whole picture with any depression, even
if it is cyclical and seems only to come and go with the weather. For some people,
counseling or psychotherapy may be helpful in identifying why these darker times
are so difficult and what they are stirring up on an unconscious level. On a
psychological, mostly unconscious level, light, especially sunlight represents
a powerful life-giving source of energy. By contrast, darkness represents the
hidden, dark side of life and therefore represents those hidden parts of ourselves
that we might rather not look into.
Seasonal affective disorder may be innate for
some people. In other words, it may be a response they were born with (like
some of us are just born warm-blooded and others of us are chilly through and
though!). It may be a response that they were always aware of or it may have
lain dormant and surfaced only after a period of heavy stress. These are those
who spend most of their lives yearning for the sun when it is absent and who
feel generally unwell during those times of the year. They experience an exacerbation
of their chronic symptoms at that time. They perk right up during the sunny spring
and summer months and then start to mourn again once the fall weather announces
the imminent onset of winter.
For other people, SAD can come on during or after
a period of emotional or physical stress. It is useful to look back and chart
the development of a depression—even one that seems to be entirely weather-related.
Was it accompanied by other, hormone-related symptoms (menopause for example),
or distressing emotional events like a bereavement or a job loss? Homeopathy
takes the whole picture into account, including any triggers or causes, and
it is these triggers that are particularly important in finding the correct
remedy.
Homeopathic remedies
There are many homeopathic remedies that have SAD symptoms (being affected by
the light and especially the lack of light in winter months) as part of their
clinical symptom picture.
Self-prescribing is not recommended for chronic
(long-term) SAD that recurs year after year. This kind of more serious depression
needs the expertise of a homeopath to piece together all the parts of a person's
history to find the remedy that matches best.
You can treat an acute episode of SAD—one that
comes on after an unusually long period without sunshine. If you do find a
good remedy match, then take it in the 30C potency, three times daily for two
days. If it doesn't work, then you need the advice of your local homeopathic
practitioner. Here are some of my favorite SAD remedies.
Ammonium carbonicum is for chilly individuals
who are very much affected by the dull, cloudy weather of winter—they become
apathetic and unmotivated, not wanting to work or do anything. They eat themselves
silly—craving lots of sweet things (especially candies which give them toothache)—and
they put on lots of weight.
Aurum metallicum is for those who sink into terrible
depression in the dark of the winter feeling like the cloud is sitting over
them. At their worst they feel that life isn't worth living. They take solace
in work and/or religion and hide themselves away listening to sad music until
the sun returns the following spring.
Phosphorus has a really close relationship with
the weather, loving the sun and sparkling with it—actually feeling invigorated
by being out in the sunshine. They are deeply affected by cloudy weather—becoming
miserable and gloomy the longer the sun stays away. In the deepest, darkest time
of the winter they can slow right down, not wanting to do anything. Chocolate
(especially chocolate ice cream) is their great source of comfort at those times—as
are their friends. Even brief outbursts of sunshine on a winter's day will
lift their spirits, as can getting out with friends and going to a party or
going dancing!
Rhus toxicodendron is useful for those who are
particularly vulnerable to cloudy weather, who find that the cold, damp, wet
and cloudy weather makes them feel just plain miserable. Their body reacts to
the cloudy weather by stiffening up—especially the back and the joints—which
makes them feel even worse. Getting up after sitting or lying down for a while
is hard, and then continued movement eases the stiffness—unfortunately those
joints start to hurt again if they are using them for a while so they have to
rest—after which the whole maddening cycle starts again, thereby causing the
restlessness that is a keynote for this remedy.
Sepia is for extremely chilly types who hate everything
about winter: the damp, the rain, the frost, the snow, the clouds—everything.
Their moods start to lift when they begin to get warm again in the late spring
and early summer when they can get out in the fresh air and do some vigorous
exercise. These people love to run much more than jog, and it is this kind of
exercise—vigorous exercise in the fresh air—that makes them feel really well
overall. If they can't do it they sink into a depressed, irritable state where
they want to be alone (and eventually, so does everyone else—want them to be
alone that is!)
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