Hello Darkness, My Old Friend
Why your brain is so SAD
This is a modified excerpt from Inside Your Head 🧠, a weekly newsletter exploring why your brain makes you think, feel, and act the way you do, written by me, Elemental’s senior writer and a former brain scientist. Subscribe here so you won’t miss the next one.
I’ve been feeling a little sad lately. I’ve never been a winter person, but this year, with no holiday parties or vacations to lighten the mood, the short, cold, gray days feel particularly bleak. Not to mention the layer of grief and fear that comes from the tenth month of a pandemic that’s killing more than 2,000 Americans every day. (Aren’t you glad you decided to read this uplifting article?!)
I also know, however, that this feeling isn’t really me — or at least it’s not my normal state of being for nine months out of the year. It’s seasonal affective disorder (SAD!), with some pandemic fatigue and despair sprinkled on top.
Seasonal affective disorder afflicts 5% of U.S. adults, although numbers vary depending on geography. For example, nearly 10% of people in Alaska experience SAD, whereas the prevalence in Florida is only 1.4%.
SAD is more than just the winter blues, writes Ashley Laderer in an Elemental article on seasonal affective disorder from last winter. “It’s typically a…
