Winter is coming \u2014 the air is cold, the days are short and spending the night curled up on the couch watching TV sounds, to some, like a good plan.<\/p>\n
But these weeks can\u00a0also cause\u00a0overeating, oversleeping and social withdrawal in\u00a0an estimated 10% of the population.<\/p>\n
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a form of depression that can emerge between the late fall and early spring. People who suffer from SAD can feel lethargic, overeat, withdraw from social interactions and have trouble keeping up their daily life schedule.<\/p>\n
“It can change their mood, attitude, mindset \u2014\u00a0everything,” said Christopher Fisher, a psychologist and director of the adult outpatient psychiatry department at Northwell Zucker Hillside Hospital, in Glen Oaks. “Some of this results from the exposure to less sunlight, less time to get things done to find that balance between work, parenting or school.”<\/p>\n
A recent review of scientific literature <\/a>reported\u00a0about 6% of the U.S. population suffers from SAD, while another 14% experience subsyndromal seasonal affective disorder, a more mild form of the disorder.<\/p>\n “I think this is an underdiagnosed condition,” Fisher said. “More people experience this but don\u2019t seek help for it … they suffer in silence.”<\/p>\n Winter-pattern SAD is different from what some people call the “holiday blues,” according to the National Institute of Mental Health<\/a>. While the “holiday blues”\u00a0are marked by sadness or anxiety due to stress over those particular events, SAD is caused by lack of daylight hours.<\/p>\n