This is a guest post by Elaine Hirsch. Elaine is kind of a jack-of-all-interests, from education and history to medicine and video games. This makes it difficult to choose just one life path, so she is currently working as a writer for various education-related sites and writing about all these things instead.

Seasonal affective disorder is a type of depression experienced seasonally, usually in the fall and winter.

According to PubMedHealth, it often comes in periods of less sunlight and is most common in areas where the winter nights are long.

Women experience it more often than men, usually starting in their teens or 20s. Many times, a person’s seasonal affective disorder can be affected by stress from work or midterms from attending an online school.

The American Psychiatric Association says seasonal affective disorder is a real condition caused by a biochemical imbalance in the brain. It affects 10 to 20 percent of the population. There are several ways to cope with seasonal affective disorder:

1Know the symptoms. If you have seasonal affective disorder, you feel depressed, unhappy and irritable during the fall and winter and feel better in the summer. You may be hungrier, especially for carbohydrates, and gain weight. You are likely fatigued and don’t feel like carrying out your daily routine or interacting with others.

2Talk to your doctor. While you may be tempted to skip this step, especially if you feel that you have all the symptoms, it’s important to talk to a doctor. He will discuss your symptoms, give you a physical exam and review blood work to make sure you don’t have some other problem.

3Get treatment. Because seasonal affective disorder is a form of depression, your doctor might prescribe antidepressants or refer you to a therapist. This condition is unique among depressive disorders because light therapy can relieve symptoms. Ask your doctor or therapist how to use bright lamps to replace some of the sunlight you are missing in the winter.

4Get active. You may not feel like it, but push yourself to go out and exercise, mingle with others and continue your job or other routine activities. Studies show being active eases symptoms of seasonal affective disorder.

5Do not self-medicate. Avoid drinking too much alcohol or overdosing on prescriptions as a way to deal with feeling poorly. This will only mask your symptoms. Moreover, because alcohol is a depressant, it can eventually make your depression worse.

6Try supplements. The Mayo Clinic suggests: St. John’s wort, a herb; melatonin, a hormone that helps regulate mood; and Omega-3 fatty acid, a substance derived from fish and some nuts.

Seasonal affective disorder is affected by your circadian rhythm, or body’s internal clock. Because you are not exposed to as much sunlight in the fall and winter, your body loses some of the cues about when you should sleep and this can lead to depression.

Experts also say having less sun reduces levels of a brain chemical called serotonin, which can contribute to depressive feelings. Seasonal affective disorder is not simply a light case of winter blues. Psychiatrists recognize it as a true mental disorder, so you don’t need to simply suffer until spring. If you think you have this condition, consult with your doctor and motivate yourself to get help.

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Britta Aragon is a cancer survivor and the founder of Cinco Vidas, Inc. She wrote “When Cancer Hits: Your Complete Guide to Taking Care of YOU Through Treatment.”

Photo courtesy of johanlb

I was scheduled to go through radiation as well, but after five months of losing my hair and suffering extra dry skin

and fatigue, tests showed the chemotherapy had done its job, and I didn’t have to go through radiation.

It’s Over, Right?

I didn’t have to go to chemotherapy treatments anymore. My hair started growing back (though more slowly than I would have liked). My energy gradually returned. But I felt guilty, because for me, cancer was anything but over.

Everyone expected me to be my “old self” again, or maybe to be bouncing off the walls with enthusiasm. After all, I had gone through cancer, and I had beaten it. I was healthy. No more cancer. Yea, Britta! I was expected to smile and laugh throughout the day. But I just couldn’t do it.

Nothing was the same for me, or would ever be the same. How was I supposed to go back to school and think about volleyball games, Friday nights out, homework, and boys? Cancer had changed me.

I looked different. I felt different. Why had this happened to me, I wondered? And what was I supposed to do now? Everywhere I turned, people expected me to be “normal.” My parents even lost patience with my melancholy. “It’s over,” they said. “Time to move on.”

But how was I supposed to do that? I felt lost.

Post Traumatic Stress and Depression

Years later, I learned that what I was going through back then was completely normal, although I wish I had known that at the time. I thought something was wrong with me, and I’ve since talked to many other survivors who felt the same way.

Fortunately, modern medicine is starting to recognize what many doctors and therapists are now calling “post traumatic stress and depression.”

Similar to victims of a violent crime, cancer survivors go through a difficult period after the treatments are over. Many of us feel depressed, or out of sorts. We struggle to make sense of what happened to us.

While we’re fighting the battle, taking our medications, wearing our wigs and puking up our guts, we have little time to reflect. When it’s all over, however, we have to process the experience, and unfortunately, only few of us allow ourselves the time and space to do so.

Get All the Help You Can

Make no mistake, cancer changes us. It changes our entire world, and our sense of ourselves. We often feel out of control, and have no idea how to reestablish a sense of mastery over our days.

We have all these feelings: anger, resentment, confusion, fear, anxiety, sadness that we don’t know what to do with. Many of us find our bodies permanently changed, and we suffer grief over our losses. Meanwhile we don’t even know where to begin with our emotions.

I never attended a support group, linked up with other survivors, or talked to a therapist. Today, I encourage survivors to do all these things and more. If you don’t, you might end up finding unhealthy ways of coping. For me, it was food. I realized I could control what I ate, so I quickly fell into an eating disorder that took me another several years to conquer.

It’s much better to get the help you need as soon as you can. Following are several tips for how to cope with cancer once it’s over, for it’s not really over until you can process the experience, move through your feelings about it, and become the new person you’re meant to be.

• See a counselor or psychiatrist. Make sure the individual specializes in cancer survivors. Many medical centers and cancer centers offer survivor programs for free or at a reduced rate.
• Attend a survivors support group. Many cancer centers can give you access to area groups. Be willing to listen and share. People who’ve traveled the same road will be more likely to understand where you’re coming from.
• Consider an online support group. Though I believe that an in-person support group is paramount, an online support group can also offer assistance and a place to share feelings, particularly if you feel like ranting at 3:00 in the morning. Try Planet Cancer and Cancer Compass, among others.
• Get your feelings out. Many survivors journal or blog to make sense of their experience. You may want to try art or music therapy, long walks, talks with a good friend, or time away.
• Read the good books. Picking up the Pieces is a very helpful book for the new cancer survivor. I’ve also written a book that talks about all facets of the cancer experience, called When Cancer Hits.
• Realize it takes time. You’re not going to be able to process your experience in a week. Be patient with yourself. When the feelings come up, try to deal with them in a healthy way, and be proactive about your own self-care. Your family, friends, and colleagues might not understand, so take it upon yourself to get the help you need.

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This is a guest post by Elaine Hirsch. Elaine is kind of a jack-of-all-interests, from education and history to medicine and video games. This makes it difficult to choose just one life path, so she is currently working as a writer for various education-related sites and writing about all these things instead.

image courtesy of APatterson

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This is a guest post by Natalie Hunter. Natalie is addicted to learning and research, and grateful for the invention of the internet because it allows her to spend some time outside rather than just poring through books in a library. She is fascinated by the different methodologies for education at large today, and particularly by the advent of online schools. She also loves to travel and learn via interaction with other people and cultures.

Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune. — Jim Rohn

Image courtesy of photostock

Learning is one of the most rewarding joys in life for many people. The continuation of learning after its obvious necessity has passed can be very helpful for people looking lead happy, healthy and fulfilled lives.

Continued education can be done anywhere at any time, from online school to reading a book. It is not just an activity for young college students, it can be enjoyed by anyone with a passion for knowledge.

Boundless rewards come from learning. When new information is absorbed through either reading or auditory retention, a person feels accomplished and successful. One can never know too much; new information is the best gift in the world. Not only can a person feel proud of themselves when they learn something new, there are also proven scientific and economic results relating to happiness when people exercise their brains.

The Benefits

One obvious reason to pursue the joy of learning is for one to qualify oneself for better employment. Economic statistics state that educated workers with a bachelor’s degree in the United States earn around 60 percent more than those with a high school diploma.

Adding to the happiness of extended education, the economic benefits of doing so are limitless. While money is a positive thing, it does not always equate to happiness for individuals. Learning, on its own and the economic benefits aside, lead to many more stimulating aspects of a person’s personal fulfillment.

On that note, education comes along with personal fulfillment and pride. When one is educated, one had boundless opportunities for their professional lives. With an education, a person can pursue any vocational path they desire. The mental and stress relieving benefits of obtaining a job in a field that stimulates the mind are well worth the effort of continuing education. Such an achievement makes a person proud of themselves, and can allow them to attain their goals and dreams.

Pursuing further education has health benefits as well. Mental stimulation, just like physical exercise does for the body, prevents cognitive degeneration of the brain. Common brain problems associated with old age, such as memory loss and motor skills, comes with a lack of stimulation for the brain.

That is, if the brain is not used and exercised, it will lose much of its muscle and power, just like muscles when they are not regularly exercised. There are many exercises one can undertake to make their brain stronger and more adept.

Another great exercise for the mind and the spirit is traveling. It is thought that Homo sapiens became the dominant hominid species because of the fact that they traveled far from their comfort zones, which required our brains to be more creative in order to adapt to different situations.

Experiencing other cultures, countries, and ways of life increases one’s experiential knowledge and opens your mind up to different lifestyles and worldviews. It is important to stay resourceful when visiting an unfamiliar place, which keeps your mind attentive and creative. Besides, seeing beautiful sights, eating interesting food, and meeting new people can do wonders to refresh a stagnant spirit.

A sound education is one of life’s most rewarding and pleasurable activities. Mental stimulation opens doors to the possibilities of the world. The joy of learning is something everyone should undertake, be it for economic reasons, sheer pleasure, or for health related reasons. Learning brings joy to life in a multitude of ways that cannot be measured from any statistic.

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