“Spleen when the low and heavy sky weighs like a lid….” said Baudelaire. But depression is not the prerogative of poets, we are also likely to suffer from these blows of blues which undermine us, especially during the short and dark days of winter. A British psychologist has established that the most depressing day of the year would be… the third Monday of January!
According to Dr. François Duforez, APHP associate practitioner, founder of the European Sleep Center in Paris, “about 3% of people suffer from depression; 6% from seasonal depression and 15% feel disorder, discomfort, inconvenience in their daily life: they don’t feel well”. a bad thing and it can be sweet to learn to live with the seasons.
“Winter is a period of withdrawal, we disengage from things, we are in a cocooning phase, it is important to take advantage of it to reconnect with yourself, your body and your well-being”, advises coach Sophie Machot (author of the book “Cultivez votre bonheur”, published by Eyrolles and of the blog concentratedebonheur.unblog.fr), who says that an Australian nurse had noted in her career the regrets expressed by people at the end of life and one of those that struck her the most was this: “I regret not having allowed myself to be happier”.
Some are more exposed than others
“The most affected people by depression are people with strong emotional reactivity”, explains Dr David Gourion, psychiatrist. Emotive, they are very sensitive to negative emotions such as sadness. However, when you are very emotional and you are subject to an event stressful, even minimal, we are more likely to develop an anxious reaction.
But there are protective factors that protect against depression: it’s not the same thing if you’re alone or in a united couple; whether you have a loving or toxic family. The professional environment also plays a role. These protective factors are powerful and they may be sufficient to protect us from these bouts of depression, but if we combine a hypersensitive temperament, a family history of depression and an unpleasant emotional environment, then the stressful event risks being more difficult to manage.
Our environment matters a lot
We can compare our brain to a car, of which dopamine would be the engine, that is to say the energy, the pleasure; norepinephrine would be the steering wheel that would give us the direction to follow and serotonin, the car alarm that would warn us of danger. Our environment plays a major role in the proper functioning of these neurotransmitters. Stressful, it will slow down serotonin: we will then tend to hypersensitivity. If dopamine is curbed, it’s engine failure. This occurs especially in the context of an unrewarding environment, conducive to frustration where one has the feeling of acting out of duty. A lack of norepinephrine occurs especially in a complex environment, with a lot of information to manage. Hence the need to take care of oneself with kindness, to surround oneself well. Even when it’s just the winter blues.
When to consult? A lasting blues can sometimes mask a more serious problem. Regardless of the treatment chosen, if the symptoms persist or worsen after a week or two, it is best to consult your general practitioner.
Depression, burnout or depression, how to tell the difference?
Depression is a normal reaction of our psyche to a difficult situation, stress. But this reaction following an annoyance or disappointment should not last more than two or three days, beyond that, you have to be careful. The depressionit is characterized by an accumulation of symptoms (at least five in all) including: sadness, intense fatigue, total loss of libido, sleep disorders, loss or increase in appetite and ideas black against which we cannot fight.
Major depression is not necessarily due to a concrete event: it is the famous “yet, I have everything to be happy”. the burn out is also a real depression, in the form of physical exhaustion often linked to an exhausting or toxic professional context.
To read :
8 recipes to avoid seasonal depression
Why light is vital for our health
Light therapy: are the lamps really effective?
