While northerners may be familiar with feeling the winter blues around this time of year, it’s important to make the distinction from seasonal affective disorder, or SAD [sad].

Marian Goldstone with the Mood Disorders Association of Manitoba explains the winter blues is when a person feels sadness and fatigue during the colder months, while SAD is a mental health disorder that can interfere with daily functioning.

Goldstone says while there no accurate number on how many people are affected by SAD in the province, it’s typically more prevalent in the northern part of the country due to it being tied to the body’s circadian rhythm.

“American statistics will show that it’s seven times more prevalent in, say, South Dakota than it is in Florida so you can only imagine how that magnifies as we move further and further north, particularly up to Thompson and beyond. Sometimes the mental health services or even medical services are more sparsely interspaced so it’s very hard to get an accurate amount of data on how many people are actually affected. There are some numbers out there but there are far more people experiencing this than are actually counted.”

For the full interview with Goldstone, catch Thompson Today at 12:40 and 5:10 this afternoon.