Seasonal Affective Disorder - Essay Example

This paper is examining various therapeutic techniques used in the treatment of SAD- Seasonal Affective Disorder.  Every year in America, approximately 12.5 million patients seek therapeutic treatment and various related problems management (Rohan, 16).

The condition can be treated using various means. Self-help is one of the therapeutic ways or techniques of treating SAD. Some of the measures under self-help include natural sunlight exposure; this should be done for close to 2 hours during the daytime. A winter holiday for those who can afford needs to be considered too. One such holiday to a country that is sunny will surely enhance the symptoms for the duration spent in the sun (Eastwood, Jennifer, Sam, & Jennifer, 26).

The second technique is light therapy which does help in improving SAD symptoms.  It involves sitting next to special light on a daily session. It involves the use of special light boxes of A4 size on a table at 2500 lux, an intensity of light that is around 10 times the intensity of ordinary light bulbs. It takes time and needs commitment to cognitive behavioral therapy and the use of antidepressant medicines (Rosenthal & Norman, 28).

I think using the light therapy technique is a better way of treating this disorder. This therapeutic technique gives room for a patient to undergo regulated and monitored treatment using the given intensity of light. In comparison, self-help might prove to be expensive for those patients not in a position of visiting a sunny country during winter, or those who have no commitment. Again, in self-help, the intensity of the light is not regulated making it difficult for the therapist or the patient to know the exact amount of light needed in case of a  situation where the client moves out to relax under the sun. Therefore, I think that light therapy is the best therapeutic technique in this case (Smith, Laura L, & Charles, 39).