Treating Your Depression With Bright Light
Earlier today I wrote an article about the symptoms of depression I mentioned that I probably should add another post here to tell you about the treatments. This is not a health blog neither am I someone who is an expert in health related issues, but by doing some research I can learn anything and here are some ways that you should use to treat your depression.
Many people start suffering from depression when there is too dark and they don’t see the daylight for long periods of time. This happens especially in parts of the world where during the winter there is the majority of the day dark. Mostly in the norhtern parts of the world in northern Europe and in Alaska.
The reason for people to get derpessed because of this is that our bodies need some real alteration in the day. You need to have a period of bright light and a period of darkness. This is because most of our hormonal and chemical systems are operating according to the changes of the day. At night we are producing hormones such as melatonin and in the morning we produce such as sex hormones and cortisol. That keeps us working during the day and enables us to fall asleep at night. These systems are controlled by the suprachiasmatic nucleus in our hypothalamus which is in turn controlled by light sensation in our eyes. That was a bit roughly explained but you should get the idea. If there is no clear change between the day and the night we are not going to have a normal hormonal cycle and our brain chemistry is going to get messed.
This is why many people get help from bright light therapies which are actually just a fancy way to say “sit in front of a light during the morning”. You will get a specific type of bright light which you will turn on in the morning and sit nearby, without directly looking at it. Do this for a half an hour and you can simulate the natural daily cycles and get help to your depression. Once again this is no professional advice and I am just reading stuff from the web and implementing here, and that is why you should also consult a doctotor if you feel like you might be depressed.
