Winter Blues, Revised Edition: Everything You Need to Know to Beat Seasonal Affective Disorder

384 Pages·2006·3.61 MB·English

by  Norman E. Rosenthal

Winter Blues

Winter Blues
Everything You Need to Know
to Beat Seasonal Affective Disorder
REVISED EDITION
Norman E. Rosenthal, MD
The Guilford Press
New York London
© 2006 Norman E. Rosenthal
Published by The Guilford Press
A Division of Guilford Publications, Inc.
72 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012
www.guilford.com
All rights reserved
The information in this volume is not intended as a substitute for
consultation with healthcare professionals. Each individual’s health
concerns should be evaluated by a qualified professional.
Except as noted, no part of this book may be reproduced,
translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission
from the Publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Last digit is print number: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
LIMITED PHOTOCOPY LICENSE
The copyright holder grants to individual purchasers of this
book nonassignable permission to reproduce all materials for
which photocopying permission is specifically provided in a
footnote. This license is limited to you, the individual
purchaser, for personal use or use with individual clients.
Purchase by an institution does not constitute a site license.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rosenthal, Norman E.
Winter Blues: everything you need to know to beat seasonal
affective disorder / Norman E. Rosenthal.—Revised ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-59385-116-2 (pbk.) — ISBN 1-59385-214-2 (cloth)
1. Seasonal affective disorder—Popular works. I. Title.
RC545.R67 2006
616.85′27—dc22
2005013114
For Leora, Josh, and Liana

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Preface xi
Part I
Seasonal Syndromes
ONE Introduction: Discovering SAD 3
TWO All About SAD 18
THREE How Seasonal Are You? 51
FOUR What Causes SAD? 61
FIVE SAD in Children and Adolescents 81
SIX “Summer SAD” and Other Seasonal Afflictions 95
Part II
Treatments
SEVEN Light Therapy 113
EIGHT Beyond Light Therapy: Other Ways to Help Yourself 166
vii
viii Contents
NINE Psychotherapy and SAD 190
TEN Antidepressant Medications 209
ELEVEN A Step-by-Step Guide Through the Revolving Year 225
TWELVE “How Can I Help?”: 247
Advice for Family and Friends
Part III
Celebrating the Seasons
THIRTEEN A Brief History of Seasonal Time 255
FOURTEEN Polar Tales 260
FIFTEEN SAD Through the Ages 264
SIXTEEN Creating with the Seasons 275
SEVENTEEN Words for All Seasons 284
EIGHTEEN Winter Light: Life Beyond SAD 294
AFTERWORD The End of an Era, 1979–1999 307
Part IV
Resources
Where to Get Further Help for Seasonal Problems 311
Dietary Advice, Menus, and Recipes 315
Further Reading 341
APPENDIX A Daily Mood Log 347
APPENDIX B Core Belief Worksheet 349
Index 351
About the Author 372
Acknowledgments
S
pace doesn’t permit me to acknowledge all those who helped make
thisbookpossible.Manyotherscontributedtheirstoriesanonymously
andthereforemustbethankedofftherecord.Specialthanks,however,
are due to Drs. Thomas Wehr and Dan Oren, my colleagues at the
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), for our many creative
interactions that helped shape my thinking. Other NIMH colleagues
arelistedintheAfterword.Othercolleagueswhohavebeenexception-
ally generous in sharing their thoughts and research findings are Mi-
chael and Jiuan-Su Terman, Siegfried Kasper, Kelly Rohan, George
Brainard, Charmane Eastman, Barbara Parry, Jack Modell, and Eliza-
bethWehr.ThankstomyeditorsatTheGuilfordPress,whohavebeen
uniformly outstanding and supportive: Seymour Weingarten, Kitty
Moore, and Chris Benton. Nutrition counselor Bette Flax provided
recipes and expertise. The light box companies whose products are
shown in Chapter 7 and who are mentioned in Part IV were unfail-
ingly helpful. I am grateful to all my colleagues in the field of seasonal
affectivedisorderandlighttherapy,whohaveprovidedinspirationand
fellowship over the past two decades. Many are mentioned in this
book. Finally, I owe a huge debt to Leora and Josh for their support
over the years and to my friend Michelle for her encouragement and
unfailing good humor.
ix
x Acknowledgments
The following publishers have generously given permission to use ex-
tended quotations from copyrighted works:
From Collected Poems 1909–1962, by T. S. Eliot. Copyright 1963 by
Faber and Faber. Reprinted by permission of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,
Inc., Orlando, Florida.
From “A Depression Which Recurred Annually,” by George Frumkes,
Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 65: 351–364, 1946. Reprinted with permission of
The Psychoanalytic Quarterly.
FromTheLettersofHenryAdams,Vol.II,editedbyJ.C.Levenson,Ernest
Samuels, Charles Vendersee, and Viola Hopkins Winner. Copyright 1982 by
theMassachusettsHistoricalSociety.ReprintedbypermissionoftheBelknap
Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
From “Little Gidding” in Four Quartets, by T. S. Eliot. Copyright 1943
byT.S.Eliotandrenewed1971byEsmeValerieEliot.Reprintedbypermis-
sion of Harcourt, Inc.
From The Poetry of Robert Frost, edited by Edward Connery Lathem.
Copyright 1936 by Robert Frost. 1964 by Lesley Frost Ballantine. 1969 by
HenryHolt&Company.ReprintedbypermissionofHenryHoltandCom-
pany, Inc.
From Selected Letters of Gustav Mahler, edited by Knud Martner. Copy-
right1979byFaberandFaberLtd.ReprintedbypermissionofFarrar,Straus
and Giroux, LLC.
From“TheSnowMan”inCollectedPoems,byWallaceStevens.Copyright
1954 by Wallace Stevens and renewed 1982 by Holly Stevens. Reprinted by
permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.
From “These” in Collected Poems: 1909–1939, Vol. I, by William Carlos
Williams.Copyright1938byNewDirectionsPublishingCorp.Reprintedby
permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
The photographs in Figures 3 through 8 were generously provided
byandusedbypermissionoftheSunBoxCompany,Gaithersburg,Maryland;
BioBrite, Inc., Bethesda, Maryland; Gary Regester for the Center for Envi-
ronmental Therapeutics, www.cet.org; and Apollo Health, Inc., Orem, Utah.