As a highly sensitive person, I have to be aware of the symptoms of seasonal affective disorder. Each winter, 500,000 people in the United States are said to become depressed and suffer from seasonal affective disorder or SAD, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians. The cause of this disorder is the decrease in the amount of available daytime light, an amount that drops from the long days of summer months.

It’s not the lack of light that causes a drop in mood specifically, it’s how that drop in light causes reactions in the body. Research from the Mayo Clinic suggests that lack of light can do one of three things in the body to cause depression. (more…)