Word: winterizer
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...novel prescription: sit in front of a bank of bright lights for several hours a day. Within a week she was back to her normal sunny self. Says Krabacher, who now basks in fake sunlight each day at the desk in her office: "I'm finally having a good winter up here...
Krabacher suffers from SAD, short for seasonal affective disorder, a syndrome characterized by severe seasonal mood swings. "This is more than the winter blahs," says Psychiatrist Carla Hellekson of Fairbanks. "This is something that needs to be taken care of." Researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health began studying and defining the syndrome in the early 1980s; it received formal acceptance this spring, when it was included for the first time in the American Psychiatric Association's bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Third Edition). Says NIMH Research Psychiatrist Norman Rosenthal, a pioneer in SAD studies...
Typically, SAD sufferers become clinically depressed with the approach of winter. Besides gaining weight, oversleeping and being listless, they withdraw socially, lose interest in sex and feel anxious and irritable. As spring approaches, depression subsides and behavior returns to normal. In fact, some people become downright euphoric during the long days of July and August. Carl Harris, 37, of Takoma Park, Md., whose winter plaint is "If I were a bear, I'd hibernate," finds in summer that he needs only four hours of sleep a night and can work two or three jobs at once. Latitude appears...
...sunny spring day." Because light seems to affect the body through the eyes and not the skin, tanning therapy doesn't work, Rosenthal points out. Some patients spend from 30 minutes to five hours daily soaking up the sun-box rays. For Dalene Barry, 44, of Washington, who each winter used to endure near suicidal depressions and weight gains of up to 40 lbs., light therapy has been liberating. "It's like a gift someone's given me," she declares. "I get four months a year back that I never...
...angles for the state are lavishing care on ecclesiastical projects. They are inspired by faith and the commitment of most congregations to pay wages of $200 to $300 a month, up to double the average that is earned on government projects. Says one worker, muffled and gloved against the winter chill: "The state gets quantity. The church gets quality...