Seasonal Affective Disorder & Eating Disorders

Seasonal affective disorder is a condition where the body does not react well to the changing of the seasons. This can be seen when fall turns to winter or when spring turns to summer. Another group of emotionally related disorders can cause a person to eat a lot or hardly at all.

Winter

• Fall and winter seasonal affective disorder, also known as SAD, is caused by shorter days that have less sunlight. People who suffer from this can become very depressed and feel anxiety.

Summer

• During the summer months, people can also suffer from SAD, but in a slightly different way. They can feel agitation, insomnia and they can have a decreased appetite.

Mania

• Mania is a condition that can be seen in people who have reverse seasonal affective disorder. This is characterized by extreme elation over irrelevant issues and long periods of an elevated mood.

Anorexia

• Anorexia Nervosa is one of the most common eating disorders. People who are anorexic are really thin and they always think they are fat even though they are not.

Bulimia

• Bulimia nervosa is condition similar to anorexia. In this condition, sufferers eat a lot of food and then try to get it back out of their system. This is called binging and purging. Some ways they do this is by taking laxatives, throwing up or by exercising obsessively.

Bigorexia

• Bigorexia is a condition that is completely opposite of anorexia. People who suffer from this don't feel they are big enough when they actually are. One of the symptoms is a strict diet that is usually high in protein and has a lot of supplements.