Light Therapy for Depression: Natural Treatment for Depression
Do you want to learn How to Process Emotions and improve your Mental Health? Sign up for a Therapy in a Nutshell Membership, you’ll get access to all of Emma’s courses, workbooks, and a Live Q and A with 100’s of exclusive videos: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/membership
If you’d like to learn more natural, research-backed ways to treat depression and anxiety, check out my course Change Your Brain: Neuroplasticity and Mental Health
https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/change-your-brain?utm_campaign=Nov%205,%202020&utm_medium=Description&utm_source=YouTube
Light therapy is an effective natural treatment for depression with less side effects than medication. Multiple peer-reviewed RCT have shown that light therapy is as effective or more effective than medication at treating non-seasonal depression.
In this episode, I’m going to teach you how light impacts your brain and influences your mood and how you can use light therapy as a natural, non-medicinal way to treat seasonal depression (aka winter blues or SAD). I’ll also teach you how rigorous research has shown that light therapy can be as effective as antidepressant medication at treating non-seasonal depression.
Check out Bright Light Therapy Lamps at Carex:
Bright Light Therapy Lamps
Discount code: NUTSHELL20
Learn more in one of my in-depth mental health courses: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/?utm_campaign=11052020&utm_medium=Description&utm_source=YouTube
Sign up for my newsletter: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/free-resources
Thanks BetterHelp for sponsoring the video. BetterHelp: Professional, affordable online counseling starting at around $65 a week: https://www.betterhelp.com/therapyinanutshell
Learn more in one of my in-depth mental health courses: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/?utm_campaign=11052020&utm_medium=Description&utm_source=YouTube
Check out my favorite books for mental health:
https://kit.co/TherapyinaNutshell/best-self-help-books
Music licensed from www.Bensound.com or Artlist.io
Images from Freepik.com (premium license), Pixabay, or Wikimedia commons
Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC, and the information provided by Emma McAdam are solely intended for informational and entertainment purposes and are not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment regarding medical or mental health conditions. Although Emma McAdam is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the views expressed on this site or any related content should not be taken for medical or psychiatric advice. Always consult your physician before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health.
About Me:
I’m Emma McAdam. I’m a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, and I have worked in various settings of change and growth since 2004. My experience includes juvenile corrections, adventure therapy programs, wilderness therapy programs, an eating disorder treatment center, a residential treatment center, and I currently work in an outpatient therapy clinic.
In therapy I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treating mental illness and other challenges we all face in life. The ideas from my videos are frequently adapted from multiple sources. Many of them come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. The sections on stress and the mind-body connection derive from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. I also rely heavily on the work of the Arbinger institute for my overall understanding of our ability to choose our life’s direction.
And deeper than all of that, the Gospel of Jesus Christ orients my personal worldview and sense of security, peace, hope, and love https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/believe
If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services.
Copyright Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC
—-
Music licensed from www.Bensound.com or Artlist.io
Images from Freepik.com (premium license), Pixabay, or Wikimedia commons
35 Comments
This is so important. So depressing in the Pacific Northwest.
Can i still get sunlight even its gloomy? I live in alaska always no sun during winter.
I use high pressure sodium light.
thanks for all of the great content, my ginger.
LED lights are not at all natural unfortunately. Wish incandescent bulbs were still around. Best to just sit outside. LED’s are just like sitting in front of a computer.
Does it also help with GAD, anxiety?
There is new research v about suna
Can it be used for a few hours ? Rather than just 30 mins
Do these lights give off vitamin D?
are these lights different from the Led lights in our house?
Dear Emma, thank you again. Do we have to face the light? Or we can place directly behind our office chair to get the same effect? Thank you
My dr just prescribed this ! We’ll see if it works
thanks a lot
Me watching under the dark clouds of Istanbul while it snows
Would grow lights from the greenhouse work? Emitting a broad spectrum of light?
100% sleep and light impacts depression. When I was working overnights and early mornings inside a concrete building where I got no sun and had a consequencely poor sleep schedule…I spiraled into depression. When I finally threw my hand up and quit my job entirely (I didn't work for 8 months straight) I was able to reset my sleep schedule to waking with the sun. I found sleep easier and my depression resolved. I no longer take antidepressants now that I sleep more and have a better job with regular hours that allows me to rise with the sun. I also am starting to use a light therapy lamp. It's really a far cry from the last few years where just getting out of bed was an insurmountable chore.
Btw walmart sells a small 10000lux light therapy lamp for $39. It's very bright with a timer and it's what I use.
Using sunglass in the sun ,will that affect serotonin production
Very useful information! Thank you for bringing out a topic that people may not even know they have (depression, SAD), and that there is a solution that does not include drugs. Of course, there are some that will benefit from today's medicines, however, it may be worth a try to get one of these lights and see if you notice a difference. Have a great day!
Is this similar to red light therapy?
Im bipolar, bought 7 lamps – it didnt end well
Hmm I am not sure natural is good a serious mental illness. Yes I heard light therapy can help for depression.
I think light therapy is extremely important. However we need more research.
if i went to talk to a doctor about llight therapy… they would have a clue about it.They will just prescribe a pharmaceutical.
I'm wondering if I could also use studio video lights also for this purpose? Such as Godox SL100D which at 1 meter puts out 32 100 lux of 96+ CRI quality 5600K or 6500K (depending on the model) daylight. Thus it is much brighter than many light therapy lamps which only put out 10 000 lux at 30 cm. Not sure about its specific wavelengths though, but if it's 96+ CRI then I guess the spectrum should be pretty even and thus usuable for therapeutic purposes, right?
Can u tell the name brand of your light
I go to bed real early now to wake up early to get more light. Its working
Sunlight doesn’t just help prove with SAD, but with normal depression or anxiety too. It does everything you explained in this video.
The sun literally resets my brain and all of its emotions, clears my congestion in my nose, cures my diet pattern. And makes me FEEL more, wherever I’m depressed. I live for the sun
I work graveyard and the sun is blocked daily here 80% of the time so this might help I'm just not sure working 3rd shift when to use.
Stoppibg the chemtrails would be helpful. That's why we have dark misting in Ohio for 10 days and counting. We should all get together and take av stand against it. The military does this
Are you still gifting therapy lights? I would love to have one for healthier mood. Do you have an email I can message my information to? Thank you for considering me as a candidate.
i have photosensitivity but i have vitamin d medication now due to lupus medications
Are there withdrawal symptoms upon discontinuation of light therapy?
Thank you for the video! So happy I moved away from Sweden! This is a big reason! Love beautiful, warm days! 😊
Any idea why a 10,000 lux fluorescent bright light therapy light box has a different effect than sunlight? It’s like a get a withdrawal effect hours after doing the lightbox but not with sunlight. This happens even if I combine light therapy with getting sunlight throughout the day.