What is SAD and how you can use it to fuel your interest in writing
One Sunday afternoon in early September I felt overwhelmed by a sense of sadness. I felt it the day before, but just brushed it off for I thought my emotions have played a trick on me again! For every late Summer Season I experience a similar feeling. Now that I am returning to my writing, I started to pay closer attention to my own feelings. Interestingly enough, when I started to feel sad for nothing, I am very much interested to write more. So, I decided to find out what exactly is going on. Why do I feel this sense of sadness when I don’t have any other reasons to feel this way? I did try to explain the reason I feel sad because the summer is over and I wish that this season will continue forever.
As it turned out, appropriately enough, this common emotion is called SAD or Seasonal Affective Disorder and is felt by many people due to the lack of exposure to light.
According to the Seasonal Affective Disorder Association,
SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) is a type of winter depression that affects an estimated half a million people every winter between September and April; in particular during December, January and February.
Now, after I educated myself on what exactly is happening, I feel much better about it and don’t worry when the feeling started to overwhelm me through this coming season. The SAD Association has detailed information about this disorder including the symptoms like sleep problems, lethargy, overeating, depression, social problems, anxiety, loss of libido and mood changes.
If you experience any of the symptoms above, you can seek light therapy. I think this is the best way to beat the winter blues. I am not worried if the SAD will pay me a visit, I am more interested in what to do when I feel it. In my previous post, feeling miserable is necessary when writing, so a sense of sadness is somehow very much related with a sense of misery. This will help me to get into my writing since I will be more in tuned with my emotions on a deeper level. I will use this opportunity to push myself to write more and keep writing.
My advice though is, if you have severe symptoms of SAD that prevents you from tending your daily routines, please consult your doctor as soon as possible. It might be more that just a lack of light exposure.
