Where does all this leave you? Confused, and, who knows, sad.
What it means is that whether or not your winter blues receive a label of SAD will depend as much on the attitude and opinion of the doctor you’re seeing than the evidence.
If you and he do go down the SAD line then he or she may entertain you with interesting hypotheses about the cause. Such as it being a deficiency of serotonin, or of melatonin, or that it’s all about our vestigial tendency to hibernate in winter (hence the tendency to crave carbs, put on weight and go all sleepy. And climb into a cardboard box).
The truth is, we don’t know what causes it. As for treatment, your doctor may suggest a light box – though some would say the jury’s still out there.
Or you may get antidepressants, not least because they’re easier to get hold of than light boxes and we know they work for all sorts of depression.
Is it to do with tryptophan?
As for theorising about tryptophan… Well, we’re aware it’s a precursor of serotonin and we know that if you deplete depression prone people of it, they get depressed.
But if you’ve read this far you’ll realise that we’re a million miles from saying it could be a useful treatment, whether by pill or diet.
You’re probably better off concentrating on the basics, such as cleaning up your lifestyle and doing some daylight jogging. And if you’re really feeling peed off, keep going until you get to your GP’s surgery.
