What is seasonal affective disorder? Seasonal affective disorder is also known as seasonal depression and it may occur in anyone. SAD happens at the same time every year where the climate creates a season with less light. It is a very common disorder that happens about 3 million times per year in the U.S. A few signs that hint at SAD would be fatigue, hopelessness, depression and withdrawal from a person’s social life. Many cases only last a few months and will cure themselves, but there have been a few cases that lead to therapy and medical treatment. Another option is photo-therapy, which is therapy that uses a light to mimic the outdoor light that causes a change in the brain to make a person happier and sleep less. 

When interviewed about SAD, senior Joslin Birles stated “I do have seasonal depression also known as Seasonal affective disorder. I think that it mainly starts when it starts to get colder. I would say that my one main symptom that I have would be sleeping a lot. A few things that I would do to feel better would be laying in my bed watching TikTok, Christmas movies or All American. Some advice that I have would be to go out and interact with others even if you do not feel like it.” 

Many people have different symptoms when it comes to seasonal depression. Things that people may do include sleeping a lot, not feeling motivated to do things in a certain season and avoiding situations that may make you talk to people. People handle having SAD in a variety of ways including watching shows or movies, talking with family or friends, therapy or medication. 

Ella Schendel, junior states that “I believe that I do have seasonal depression in the winter. I think that depression is more intense and medically diagnosed compared to seasonal depression being self diagnosed where you feel less like yourself because of a time period not an event happening. I try to handle having SAD by doing things to preoccupy my time. I work all the time and try to stay warm, but the school is freezing. Advice that I have would be to just not focus on it entirely, do not make your whole life about that one specific thing. It will go away in time.”

PCM is not the only place that is impacted by SAD , it is happening everywhere in the world where seasons impact the amount of time that light is there.