The Affective-emotional Disorder: What Is It?
The affective and emotional disorder is also known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD – seasonal affective disorder) or di’inverno depression. It sure sounds familiar, especially to those people who get sad at certain times of the year without knowing why. Do you want to know more about this disorder?
Read on.
What is that?
Affective-emotional disorder is a type of depression influenced by the changes in brightness caused by each season. It generally begins in the months of October and November when the hours of light are reduced. With the arrival of spring these symptoms subside. What happens? Many times the opposite happens and these symptoms occur in the summer.
What are the causes?
The causes of this disorder are not yet fully understood. For the moment it is known that feeling sad and demoralized is the consequence of the few hours of light due to the seasonal change. If it is the opposite case, that is to say in the summer, even the increase in brightness causes a change in emotions that we cannot explain.
Turning to the brain, experts believe that melatonin and serotonin (two hormones that help regulate the sleep cycle, energy and mood) may be responsible for feeling more down than usual.
What symptoms does it present?
1. Fluctuating mood
People who suffer from this disorder suddenly have a dejected mood, they feel they are worthless. They basically experience feelings of despair. Anything, even the silliest, annoys them much more often. All of this is a consequence of their more irritable and sensitive emotional state.
2. Inability to enjoy the moments
Although you particularly love an activity, when affective-emotional disorder occurs, everything you appreciated suddenly no longer interests you because you are not enjoying it as before. You lose interest and become dissatisfied with many things and situations. Usually this is accompanied by guilt.
3. Decreasing energy
Have you sometimes felt tired for no reason? Why do you tend to oversleep even without being tired? What is happening to you? This is what people with this disorder ask themselves. The almost absence of energy that comes suddenly leads to questions to which neither a cause nor a solution can be found.
4. Dietary changes
Among the dietary changes caused by this disorder are both a lack of appetite and the need to eat more. The latter can be increased by anxiety caused by changes in the sleep cycle, lack of energy, passivity into which one suddenly sinks, etc.
5. Difficulty concentrating
This disorder can cause a decrease in academic and work performance. Why does this happen? For lack of motivation. As mentioned before, the lack of energy is closely linked to this disorder. It will be more difficult for you to get up, everything will require an effort that you do not want to make. To all this is added that lack of concentration that will cause you to think about something else or perhaps nothing.
6. Decrease in social activities
People with this disorder can spend less time outside the home. They tend to lock themselves in, to see their friends and family less. It is as if they close in on themselves. They don’t want to go out, have fun, have fun, do things, feel active. This causes them frustration because they don’t even do anything at home, so they see their life as meaningless.
How to fix it?
While there are various ways to find a solution to this disorder, some may help those who suffer from it and others may not. To begin with, you need to report these symptoms to your doctor to see how they can help you. The doctor will then be able to resolve some of the doubts you may have.
He will certainly advise you to take advantage of the daylight hours to exercise, force yourself to have an active social life, eat well, establish a sleep routine. These and other things are the things to do to overcome this type of disorder in the best possible way.
Do you suffer from or do you know someone who has suffered from this affective-emotional disorder? Do you believe there is a better solution? We await your opinions!
