On the West Coast, the season turns not only in temperature but in light.
Autumn to winter becomes months of cloud cover, rain, shortened days, and muted horizons.
For many, this change is not simply noticed — it is felt.
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is more than a passing sense of dullness or “winter blues.”
It can alter mood, sleep, appetite, desire for connection, motivation, and how a person makes meaning of their days. While up to one in ten experience the full clinical picture, many more notice seasonal patterns that echo aspects of depression — heaviness, withdrawal, flatness, or the slow fading of interest in what usually matters.
How Seasonal Depression Often Appears
People describe:
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A sense of emotional dimming or flattening
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Difficulty initiating tasks or making decisions
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Changes in sleep — too little or too much
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Craving carbohydrates or losing appetite altogether
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Irritability, reduced motivation, or low self-worth
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Withdrawal from connection
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A sense of moving through fog — internally, not just outside
It isn’t failing to cope.
It is the mind and body negotiating the absence of light.
Why Light Matters
Our circadian rhythms — sleep, energy, mood — are regulated in part by sunlight.
Reduced light disrupts these rhythms, affecting serotonin and melatonin, which shape waking, sleeping, appetite, and emotional steadiness.
When the environment removes cues the nervous system depends on,
the psyche responds — often not with crisis, but with quiet withdrawal.
What Can Help
These are not solutions in the sense of “fixing,”
but ways of supporting the system during a demanding season.
1. Increase exposure to natural light
Morning walks, sitting near windows, or using a verified lightbox can gently signal the body to shift its internal settings.
2. Keeping rhythm when the environment has lost one
Regular sleep and waking times support the nervous system in staying oriented when sunlight no longer does the job.
3. Movement as counterweight
Gentle movement — yoga, walking, strength work — reminds the body it is alive, capable of heat, presence, and vitality.
4. Attending to nourishment
Not to restrict or control, but to support mood, energy, and regulation.
5. Choosing connection even when the impulse is retreat
Isolation can deepen the depressive pull. Ritualizing contact — a weekly call, shared meal, or predictable routine — interrupts the drift.
6. Mindfulness, journaling, or reflective practices
Not to “stay positive,” but to remain in contact with one’s inner world rather than going numb to it.
7. Small repeatable rituals
A candle lit at dusk.
Soup on Sundays.
A walk regardless of rain.
Ritual creates rhythm where the sun has stepped back.
Winter as Descent
In many traditions, winter is not simply a season but a descent —
a time of rootedness, quiet work beneath the surface, and reduced external growth.
Trees survive by withdrawing energy inward, not by forcing blossoms in frost.
Modern life asks us to remain productive, constant, and bright
in a season that was once meant for rest, mending, storytelling, and tending the hearth.
The dissonance between the external demand to perform
and the internal pull toward stillness
can create psychological strain.
For some, winter amplifies absence — fewer colors, fewer voices, fewer distractions —
and what has been held at bay in busy seasons may rise in the quiet.
Listening rather than resisting can turn winter from an adversary into a teacher.
The question is not only How do I get through this?
but What is this season asking of me?
A Final Reflection
Seasonal depression is not a personal failing;
it is a response to an environment that has changed faster than the body and psyche can adapt.
The task is not to outrun winter,
but to live through it with rhythm, gentleness, and support —
trusting that the season turns,
and we do too.