Endless winter darkness traps elderly Kashmiris in loneliness, depression

Srinagar, Dec 1: As winters turn Kashmir into a monochrome, for many people, mostly elderly, it brings about profound emotional and psychological strain.

The diminishing sunlight, outdoor activities, and social interactions are the primary culprit behind the exacerbation of many physical and mental conditions, including Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), a form of depression tied to the seasons.

The Harvard Health Publishing’s widely cited article, ‘A SAD Story: Seasonal Affective Disorder’ explains how winter depression is often triggered by sunlight deprivation.

It recommends solutions like light therapy and increasing indoor brightness.

It also emphasises that SAD can hit people even if they don’t have “clinical depression”.

Kashmir’s brutal winters, with perpetually overcast skies, omnipresent fog, and drastically shortened days change the routines of people to a great extent.

While for many, these changes may not cause any significant impact on their physical and mental health, for others, it is a time of struggle.

The movement outside homes gets severely restricted by snow and icy paths for the elderly, and social life grinds to a halt.

Psychologists and psychiatrists believe that this causes an exacerbation of feelings of loneliness and despair.

Dr Syed Mehvish Yaver at the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (IMHANS), Kashmir, said that changes in mood with seasons are a common phenomenon and were once part of human evolution.

“It served the purposes necessary for survival,” she said.

However, Dr Mehvish said that mood variations to an extent which leads to distress and social-occupational dysfunction constitute a brain disorder and are not uncommon in winters.

She said that the altered brain rhythms cause inflammation in the brain, causing seasonal mood disorders.

Dr Mehvish said darkness and sleep serve important restorative functions in the brain, as does daylight.

“Reduced daylight stretches neuronal function and dynamics, and in predisposed people, it leads to Seasonal Fall (autumn) depression,” she said and warned that such a condition, if left untreated, can stretch well into spring.

Doctors believe that daylight hours dwindle to as few as eight or nine between November and February.

The lack of sunlight is a primary culprit behind rising cases of SAD, linked to imbalances in mood-regulating hormones like serotonin and melatonin.

For the elderly, these challenges are even bigger.

Many of them are already dealing with mobility issues related to age or lifestyle.

In addition, chronic conditions like respiratory ailments make them stay confined indoors for months on end.

“Winter is not just detrimental to conditions like hypertension, it also worsens mental states that can further aggravate blood pressure, asthma, and diabetes,” Dr Mehvish said.

She said elderly patients often report feeling unusually low, anxious, or withdrawn as sunlight fades.

This vulnerability among older adults is echoed globally.

The Oxford Institute of Population Ageing’s article, ‘Winter Wellbeing and Older Adults Vulnerability’, points out that older adults are particularly at risk during dark winters because of mobility limitations, chronic illness, and reduced social engagement.

It calls for structured exercise programmes, community-based social support, and light therapy for older adults.

Research on Kashmiri populations reveals winter depression frequently manifests as sadness, decreased activity, and social difficulties.

It is driven “more by diminished daylight than temperature drops”.

In Kashmir, people usually are not encouraged to take walks during winters, with concerns of hypothermia and respiratory infections surging.

This compounds isolation.

Social events are completely halted in winters, further cementing people in their cocoons.

For a vast majority, power curtailments add to the gloom.

The prolonged dark evenings, mimicking the depths of winter even in milder months, worsen conditions.