Mental health problems >>>> Seasonal depression or mopes

Seasonal depression or mopes.

The seasonality of the climate is not an easy thing. In addition to the fact that the body must adapt to the new temperature regime, daylight hours also change: it shortens or lengthens. All these factors cannot but affect the state of the organism, because, like any living creature, a person is a “child of nature”. Therefore, temperature and sunlight are integral regulators of internal biochemical processes - they slow down or speed up. Hence, a cheerful mood and a surge of energy on sunny days of spring, and lethargy, drowsiness, loss of energy at the beginning of the autumn - winter period. In everyday life, a decadent mood is called " mopes", in medicine - "seasonal depression".

And if many animals have adapted to climate change and in cold weather fall into suspended animation or hibernation, then a person is accustomed to stay awake in any season, because life is so short, why sleep half of it. Therefore, in order to feel normal in any season, it is necessary to learn to deceive the body's regulators, creating artificial conditions for accelerating metabolism and increasing the general tone of mood.

To rank seasonal depression as a disease, you need to suffer from it regularly for a long period and not have the inner strength to cope with this oppressive state on your own.

Where to get these inner forces in the cold and slushy autumn? This question is answered by biochemistry, within the framework of which discoveries have long been made that the emotional reactions of the human body are under the control of a biologically active substance - serotonin. The level of serotonin falls and the person becomes lethargic, drowsy, lacking in emotion, and sedentary. The level of serotonin rises, and a person feels a surge of mental strength, he has a desire to move more, and his emotional mood improves. Serotonin also has a regulator - melatonin, a hormone whose level depends on the trivial amount of sunlight. Sunlight has a life-giving effect on almost all metabolic processes in the body, but most importantly, it improves mood, protects a person from depressive conditions.

There are special therapy sessions for people with painful mopes. They create conditions for increased illumination of the room. For comparison: the illumination rate of the sales area of a food store is 400 Lux, a sporting goods store is 200 Lux, a living room is 150-200 Lux.

How to calculate independently the degree of illumination of a room? According to the formula: 1Lux = 1Lumen / per square meter of the room. Knowing the power of the lamp and the corresponding lumens, it is possible to calculate what is the degree of illumination of the room in which the person is.

Lamps:

75W incandescent lamp corresponds to 960 Lumens,
A 100W incandescent lamp corresponds to 1380 lumens,
15W fluorescent lamp corresponds to 950 Lumens,
18W fluorescent lamp corresponds to 1350 Lumens,
Halogen lamp (12V) 20W corresponds to 340 Lumens,
Halogen lamp (12V) 35W corresponds to 670 Lumens,
Halogen lamp (12V) 50V corresponds to 1040 Lumens,
Halogen lamp (12V) 75W corresponds to 1280 Lumens,
Halogen lamp (220V) 100W corresponds to 1650 Lumens,
Halogen lamp (220V) 150W corresponds to 2600 Lumens.

Sunlight:

The highest illuminance by the sun with a clear sky = 100,000 Lux,
Solar illumination at mid-latitudes = 17000 Lux,
Solar illumination on a summer day in cloudy weather = 12000 Lux,
In winter, solar irradiance at mid-latitudes = 5000 Lux,
Illumination in a bright room by the window = 1000 Lux.

For example, let's calculate the illumination for a room of 12 square meters with one 100 W incandescent lamp: 1380 Lumen / 12 sq. m = 115 Lux.

The resulting illumination index can be compared with the illumination of sunlight in a certain season and draw conclusions. If you stay all day in a semi-dark room, you can become a victim of depression with poor appetite (or, on the contrary, with indomitable gluttony), indifferent attitude to the surrounding reality, under the yoke of a feeling of hopelessness of all beginnings in your own life.

Therefore, it is recommended to change the degree of illumination of the room in order to easily survive the "dark" seasons and / or choose a vacation in the autumn-winter period for a trip to the sunny corners of the planet.