Coming up on this week's episode of The Reset Room, host Kelly Crichton is joined by resident expert Amana Walker to talk about a subject that affects a lot of people at this time of year - Seasonal Affective Disorder - or SAD as it is also known.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Hello, I'm Kelly Creighton and this is the Reset Room.
00:05 We're here once again to give you the tools
00:06 you need to succeed and answer your questions
00:08 on your journey to fulfillment.
00:10 I'm very pleased to say I'll be joined
00:12 by one of our resident experts,
00:13 Kay Woodburn or Amina Walker each week
00:16 to look at a specific area, personal challenge
00:18 and how best to approach it.
00:20 Today, we're talking about how to approach
00:21 that time of year when many of us will feel the effects
00:25 of the approaching winter,
00:26 also known as seasonal affective disorder
00:28 or SAD for short.
00:30 Later in the podcast, we'll hear directly from listeners
00:33 looking for some advice around a challenge they face
00:35 and we'll certainly do our very best
00:37 to help them out with that.
00:39 If you missed the last episode, you can catch up now.
00:41 Kay and I were discussing how to apply
00:43 an athlete's mindset to everyday life.
00:46 I'm delighted to say we are coming
00:47 to a small screen near you.
00:49 The Reset Room will be broadcast on Shots TV
00:52 which is Freeview Channel 276.
00:55 Shots is brought to you by a network of journalists
00:57 from across the country
00:57 who are transforming stories at the heart of your community
01:00 into great TV.
01:01 You'll find true crime stories, football news and analysis,
01:04 plus coverage of lifestyle, TV, film and much more.
01:07 Today, I'm joined by Amina Walker once again.
01:10 Hi, Amina.
01:11 - Hello.
01:12 - For those who haven't listened before,
01:14 Amina has 27 years of coaching experience
01:16 and has seen it all when it comes to personal growth,
01:17 challenges and helping people perform
01:19 under the pressures we face in life.
01:21 Amina regularly coaches people in the spotlight
01:23 and in high profile positions
01:25 in business, entertainment and sport.
01:27 How are you doing, Amina?
01:28 How are you doing with the change in the seasons?
01:32 - Oh, I am that person.
01:34 I am that person who suffers with sad syndrome.
01:38 So you know what?
01:40 I'm the perfect candidate.
01:41 - Have a chat.
01:42 - For the conversation today, yeah.
01:44 - Well, there's no escaping it.
01:44 - I'm working on it for me up actually, Kelly.
01:47 - Well, oh, vice versa.
01:49 There's no escaping it.
01:52 You know, we're well into autumn now,
01:53 winter's around the corner.
01:54 The clocks will be changing soon.
01:56 Lots of people love this time of year,
01:58 you know, getting the woolies out
01:59 and cozying up beside the fire with a book
02:00 or you know, there's that kind of romantic vision
02:03 of this time of year.
02:04 Others not so much.
02:05 And I too would fall into that category, I have to say.
02:09 So yeah, I mean, it's inevitable.
02:13 There's nothing we can do about it.
02:14 We can't change the weather.
02:15 So it's a bit more than feeling disappointed, isn't it?
02:19 Can you explain what sad is for us, please, Amina?
02:22 - Yeah, definitely.
02:23 And there are varying degrees of it.
02:24 So some people feel it a little bit and other people
02:26 and there are obviously so much, so much more, yeah.
02:30 Sad syndrome stands for seasonal affective disorder.
02:34 And it's a very common syndrome
02:36 and it hits us from autumn onwards.
02:40 Normally when the clocks go back, is it?
02:43 They go back, don't they, in autumn.
02:46 So, because what happens is the days get shorter.
02:50 So we're waking up when it's dark
02:52 and we're getting less sunlight.
02:54 So seasonal affective disorder
02:57 almost affects our body clock
02:59 because our body doesn't wanna wake up in the morning
03:02 because it's dark and our body clock wakes up
03:06 with natural sunlight and our body wants to sleep more.
03:10 So it affects our mood.
03:12 And in some people can lead to depression.
03:14 So it's a serious thing, although we can jest about it
03:18 and we can see the fun in it.
03:20 It's a serious thing and it does affect a lot of people.
03:23 It does affect more people
03:24 in the Northern hemisphere of the world
03:26 because we're the ones that are affected most
03:29 by the lack of sunlight.
03:31 - I hadn't thought about that before, yeah.
03:32 So yeah, do you know, I think it's one of those things
03:35 like so many things nowadays that we're sort of thrown away
03:40 like as like, you know, oh, you've got the winter blues,
03:42 you'll be fine, you know, whatever in the past.
03:44 But actually it's a real thing
03:46 and it's a thing we need to be conscious of
03:48 and maybe we can work towards dealing with it
03:50 a bit better.
03:51 So can you tell us what are some of the symptoms of SET?
03:54 Then how would somebody know
03:55 that they're maybe suffering from it?
03:57 - Well, there are a variety of symptoms
03:59 in all honesty, Kelly.
04:00 And it can be just feeling, wanting to sleep more for sure
04:05 because we don't want to wake up in the morning,
04:06 it's cold and dark.
04:07 I want to go to bed early because it's cold and dark.
04:10 So we just want to sleep more naturally
04:13 and we are less and we are more fatigued
04:15 during the course of the day as well.
04:17 And that in itself can lead to just an anxiety,
04:22 recklessness and feeling a bit miserable about things.
04:27 And in fact, we do lose interest.
04:29 We lose interest in work,
04:30 in wanting to do things, in going out.
04:33 We naturally eat more.
04:34 We tend to eat more carbs
04:36 because it makes us feel comforted and warm.
04:39 And that can lead to us putting on more weight
04:41 which also doesn't help us,
04:43 doesn't certainly doesn't help our moods.
04:45 And so we have those kinds of cravings
04:47 and we sometimes have difficulty concentrating
04:51 because our body is quite, our body is low
04:54 and our serotonin, hormone level drops
04:57 and that leads to really low moods.
04:59 And that can affect us during the course of the day
05:02 which adds to us feeling lethargic and wanting to sleep.
05:06 And so some people really do feel quite hopeless
05:10 and really down.
05:11 And it's not just the winter blues for some people.
05:15 It can lead to something that's far more serious than that.
05:18 (upbeat music)
05:21 (upbeat music)