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 The Body Blues About the Body Blues
 What are the Body Blues?
Millions of women don't feel their best and don't know why. They're not outright depressed, but they aren't really happy either. They eat too much or have gained weight lately. They find it hard to concentrate or have trouble sleeping. They feel tense, anxious, or irritable, or they're highly sensitive to criticism. They're tired and not very interested in sex (or even everyday life).
What's wrong? The answer lies in biology. Too little sunlight and exercise, combined with shortages of certain vitamins critical to feelings of well-being, cause this all-too-common constellation of symptoms known as subsyndromal depression, or as the psychiatric community calls it, "vegetative depressive symptoms". Once dismissed by doctors as "nervous depression," the syndrome has recently been reexamined and renamed the Body Blues by Marie-Annette Brown, Ph.D., R.N., and her research team at University of Washington.
At any given time, one in four women may be affected, making it one of the most severely underdiagnosed conditions among women today
A woman with any three or more of these symptoms may have the Body Blues:
- Eating too much and gaining weight
- Low energy
- Irritability or tension
- Sleep difficulties
- Difficulty concentrating
- Daytime drowsiness
- Decreased interest in sex
- Mild anxiety
- Mild depression
- Heightened sensitivity to rejection or criticism
A person affected by the Body Blues may have symptoms limited to the list above, or they may have the Body Blues as part of other disorders. For instance, menopausal conditions could include both Body Blues symptoms plus hot flashes; PMS could include the Body Blues plus bloating and cramps; postpartum depression could include Body Blues symptoms though with more severe mood conditions.
Although this condition is prevalent
in women (see Dr. Brown's Q&A
for more information on why), men can also experience the
Body Blues, particularly men over 40.
Dr. Brown and Jo Robinson, a noted health
author and researcher, developed a non-drug program to treat
the Body Blues, and tested it in a clinical trial at the
University of Washington. The startling success of the program,
known as the LEVITY Program, led Brown and Robinson to write
When Your Body Gets the Blues,
a new book about the Body Blues syndrome and the LEVITY
Program.
Do YOU have the Body Blues? Take the Body
Blues Quiz.
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