It’s Not Just The Winter Blues

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 8, 2009

Contact:
Judith Gusky
Phone:  412-450-8011
judithgusky@gmail.com
www.judithgusky.com
 

Seasonal Affective Disorder Workshops 
 
Pittsburgh, PA (PittsburghNewsWire.com) — Do you struggle every winter with depression, low energy, poor diet, excessive sleep habits, and feelings of isolation? You may have Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).
 
The upcoming workshops will cover the following topics:

• Understanding seasonal depression
• Effective treatments
• Light therapy benefits & product demonstration
• Managing diet and exercise
• Support group sessions

Date: Beginning October 24, 2009, 1pm-3pm (additional dates below)
Contact: Judith Gusky
Phone: 412-450-8011
Email: judithgusky@gmail.com
Website: www.judithgusky.com
Address: 5829 Ellsworth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15232
 
It’s Not Just the Winter Blues.  Cloudless, sunny days in Western Pennsylvania? Not, really the norm. In fact, over the last fifty years, Pittsburgh has averaged only 59 sunny days per year (less than 20 percent). Even combined with “partly cloudy” days, the sun shines only about 45 percent of the time. According to the National Climatic Data Center, even the snow-belt cities of Syracuse, Buffalo, and Cleveland are sunnier (but not by that much) while places like Juneau and Nome, Alaska and Elkins, West Virginia are somewhat cloudier.
 
In Pittsburgh, October is one of the sunniest months. It goes along with the crisp, cool fall air. But then the winter months follow with an average of only three full sunny days each month from December through February. Adding the partly cloudy days, the average is still less than ten days of sunshine each winter month.
 
This is not to disparage the city, but to point out that certain health problems may be more common in a winter climate like Pittsburgh’s, including seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Seasonal depression or SAD affects as many as half a million people in the United States each winter. People with SAD begin to feel depressed in the late fall and then feel much better as spring arrives. In the northern hemisphere, January and February are usually the months with the greatest symptoms.
 
Judith Gusky is a clinical mental health counselor just beginning her second year of practice in Pittsburgh. She is offering a series of workshops on Seasonal Affective Disorder beginning October 24, 2009.
 
Though many symptoms overlap, clinically depressed people usually tend to have little interest in food, experience weight loss and have trouble sleeping, while sufferers of seasonal depression are just the opposite. They generally exhibit a craving for foods high in carbohydrates, gain weight, and tend toward excessive sleep habits. Often reduced sex drive accompanies these SAD symptoms.
 
Some researchers think that SAD may be a genetic vestige of hibernation in humans. In many ways SAD does replicate hibernation-like activities. Binge eating and excessive sleeping is an adaptive mechanism aimed at conservation of energy in animals. Decreased sex drive is also adaptive as a means of ensuring that offspring are born in the spring and summer months when food is more available.
 
SAD may be a hibernation hold-over, but researchers today believe that “light” is at the center of both the cause and treatment of SAD.
 
Most researchers agree that SAD is a physiological and psychological response to reduced sunshine during the winter months—prolonged exposure to relative darkness brought on by shorter days and harsh weather. Simply put, it is a disturbance of our biological or internal clocks that follow a circadian rhythm—the (roughly) 24-hour cycle of biological processes in animals and plants driven by the rising and the setting of the sun.
 
Restoring the circadian rhythm is key to resolving SAD. In the last decade, bright light therapy has become a first-line treatment for seasonal affective disorder. What is light therapy? How does it work? What are the criteria for selecting the right light therapy treatments and products? What other treatments and protocols may ease the symptoms of SAD—diet, exercise, changing sleep habits, etc.?
 
Seasonal affective disorder and various treatment options are the focus of a series of two-hour Saturday workshops beginning October 24 and running through February.  There also will be product demonstrations of a variety of light therapy products and opportunities for follow-up support groups.
 
Workshops will be held on the following dates (additional workshops may be scheduled based on demand) at 5829 Ellsworth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15232. Call Judith Gusky Counseling Services for additional information and to register: 412-450-8011.  You can also learn more and register online by going to: http://www.judithgusky.com.
 
October 24, 2009
November 21, 2009
December 12, 2009
January 9, 2010
February 6, 2010

Judith Gusky is a clinical mental health counselor in Pittsburgh, PA who works with clients on mood disorders, relationship issues, alcoholism recovery, and life-cycle adjustments. She specializes in grief and loss, counseling for the older adult, end-of-life issues, help for the caretaker, and living with cancer and other illnesses. Related interests include: the healing power of music and song, the use of writing in therapy, and present-moment strategies for better mental health. Home visits and visits to nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, hospices, and hospitals can be made by special arrangement.
 
 
###