Overview
- Mental health experts advise people who typically struggle in winter to begin preventive routines now, including healthier eating, exercise, staying busy, or volunteering.
- Local treatment options include light therapy and counseling at Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport and Oceans Healthcare's Louisiana Behavioral Health Center.
- Rapid Recovery, an IV therapy clinic, says it gave more than 1,000 free vitamin D shots last year and recommends low-cost supplements at roughly 2,000 IUs per day.
- Clinicians describe SAD as a recurrent seasonal depression marked by fatigue, irritability, difficulty concentrating, appetite changes, persistent sadness, and loss of interest.
- Reduced sunlight is believed to affect melatonin and serotonin and may lower vitamin D levels, with combined strategies—therapy, bright-light exposure, and supplementation—recommended in practice.