Just like fibromylagia, and ADD (attention deficit disorder), Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a hard to diagnose and easily disregarded or overlooked condition or form of depression. Some people get the winter blues. Some just feel sluggish and have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning. But, for some it is a serious, almost debilitating disorder. For some it can lead to an actual diagnosis for depression.

For some it is just a mild, temporary feeling of helplessness - a very minor form of depression. For others it can be very serious. As evidenced in many studies, 1 out of every 10 people have some manifestation of SAD. And just like with regular depression, there have been cases ending in suicide, progression into different forms of depression and psychosis including manic depression, multiple personality disorder (schizophrenia), etc...

Key indicators that one has SAD are sluggishness, sleeping over 10 hours per day and still feeling tired, general lethargy, migraines that can be quite severe and usually hit their peak with drops in barmometric pressure. Studies have shown that depressed people are more susceptible to temperature extremes which some researches have attributed to evidenced lower sustained levels of electrolytes and essential minerals and salts in the body and brain. One of these is potassium. It has been proven that low levels of potassium can bring on severe migrains. Another is vitamin D and sun exposure - many doctors believe that the seasonal limited sun exposure and lower levels of vitamin D produced at the cellular level in our skin can bring on SAD all by itself.

SAD can begin at any age, but is rarely evidenced in childhood. It occurs mostly women age 35 and above. If one or more symptoms of SAD can be seen it is strongly suggested that one seek appropriate medical care. It could be something as simple as a chemical imbalance that a small change in diet could quickly fix. Sometimes a trip to a spa for a skin treatment or skin peel can be enough to offset the condition. Or it could be more severe. There is no reason to let this condition go and suffer through it. With recent advances in medicine SAD can be treated very effectively and the sufferers quality of life greatly improved.