How to Beat Seasonal Depression Before It Arrives
The sun’s soon going to be setting at around 4:30 in the afternoon. For some of us — like one of my colleagues, who waits all year to put on a fisherman’s sweater and sit in the darkest booth of a pub — this is cause for celebration. Shorter days are a time to hunker down and hamper expectations. These months represent an opportunity to cook more, light candles and fall asleep next to a fireplace with a book on one’s lap. You know: cozy shit.
But “lane-shifting” seasonal habits don’t come easily to everyone. In fact, an estimated 10 million Americans suffer from seasonal affective disorder, a season-specific modulation of major depressive disorder, which generally starts in late fall and doesn’t ease up until the sun returns for good in mid-spring. In recent years, the disorder has become a zeitgeist-y term, likely because of its on-point acronym (SAD) and the frequency and casualness with which Twitter and TV shows allude to it.
That isn’t a bad thing, necessarily. It’s important people are aware of the disorder’s prevalence and the harm it can cause (from insomnia, to weight fluctuations, to feelings of intense isolation). But those who suffer from SAD should also be aware that the hopelessness it causes isn’t inevitable. Beyond talk therapy and and medication — either of which might be prescribed after an accurate SAD diagnosis — there are lifestyle changes that you can incorporate into your day to get ahead of the disorder.
| 
