Overview
When days get shorter and colder, do you get gloomier? Do you have trouble waking up? Controlling your diet? Focusing on work and relationships? If so, you may be one of the millions of people who suffer from seasonal affective disorder (SAD): changes in mood and behavior due to seasonal changes, such as feeling depressed in winter. Rosenthal, senior researcher at the National Institutes of Health and clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University, led the team that first described SAD. Now in his revised and updated Winter Blues, he describes SAD and how to overcome it. The book includes a self-diagnosis to see how severely seasonal changes affect you (or your child).
Rosenthal, author of St. John's Wort: The Herbal Way to Feeling Good, brings SAD to life with profiles of seasonal-slump sufferers. All of these people experienced dramatic improvement with light therapy--exposure to a special light box for 30 to 90 minutes a day. Winter Blues tells you everything you need to know about light boxes and other treatments, such as psychotherapy, antidepressant medications, herbs, vitamins, and the role of diet and exercise. Rosenthal includes many helpful extras, such as tips for dealing with the holidays and a sample letter requesting insurance reimbursement for a light box. --Joan Price