Light Therapy: What it is and why it can reduce social anxiety symptoms

September 30th, 2009 by admin

Light Therapy For Social Anxiety Symptoms? That’s right. It’s that time of year, in the United States, when the days begin to be shorter and our exposure to the bright light from the sun begins to diminish significantly. The effect for some people is an imbalance of the brain hormones and body hormones that regulate sleep and feelings of well-being. People often get depressed in the winter because our brains and bodies are sensitive to the amount of light we get. We function at our best when we wake up to the same, bright daylight-powered intensity of sunlight each morning at the same time. When we don’t get that, our social anxiety symptoms may worsen as well. The reason has to do with the neurotransmitters like Serotonin, Dopamine, and hormones like melatonin. Any disruption of these brain factors can lead to either depressed mood, trouble sleeping, trouble staying awake, or increased agitation and anxiety.

The solution? A light therapy box. It simulates the effect of the sun, so that your brain gets back into a rhythm of creating the right hormones at the right time. Without a morning burst of light, your circadian rhythm (your brain’s internal clock) will flat-line, meaning your body temperature and release of sleep-inducing hormones like melatonin will be small and steady instead of coming as a wave at the right times during the day.

Once you get your body and brain back in sink with a powerful circadian rhythm cycle, you will find that your energy, mood, and anxiety all improve. There are several things which our bodies need to maintain a positive mood. On the physical side, those things include regular morning exposure to bright sunlight, and around two hours of movement during the day. So if you work indoors, in an office building, mall, or other area without daylight streaming in, and you basically sit at work and sit at home, you become vulnerable to elevated anxiety and depression.

Don’t buy just any light-therapy box. Buy the new kind that selectively emits the blue-spectrum light that triggers the brain to think the sun is shining. This kind is better because it takes much less energy to run, doesn’t cause eye-strain like the older super bright full spectrum light boxes, and doesn’t emit the potentially harmful UV light waves. Here’s the blue-spectrum light therapy box I personally use during the winter months Philips Health GoLite M2 Blue Spectrum Light Therapy Device .

It is very small and the advantage over the older versions of Philip’s blue spectrum light is that it has an li-ion battery that you can charge so you don’t have to mess with chords when you use your light for 15 minutes to 30 minutes in the morning while you eat your breakfast. Using the light as soon as you wake up makes it easy to wake up on subsequent mornings without that groggy feeling you usually get when trying to get up on dark winter mornings.

The newest version that Philips has come out with costs one hundred dollars more than the M2 just for a slightly more even spread of the light and a few extra programmable features. It doesn’t seem worth the extra hundred bucks to me, but if you want to read their advertizing information about it, you can see it here: Philips goLITE BLU Light Therapy Device .

You can expect results (as far as waking up easier and sleeping more soundly) from using a light therapy box within about three days of daily use, but the impact on your mood will gradually continue for a much longer period of time. For most people, social anxiety symptoms have very specific mental triggers that happen with or without the underlying chemical imbalance that comes from winter months in the northern or southern reaches of the earth, but it makes it easier to apply the Social Anxiety Secrets System when you have your brain chemicals working for you instead of against you.

Live With Courage and Discipline!

Dr. Todd Snyder

www.socialanxietysecrets.com