Our new president has promised Americans “a dark winter.” Whether he’s simply noting a hard truth or whether he and his administration intend to make it so, the next few months will likely bring hardship and discouragement to a nation already beaten down by a year of pandemic, months of rioting, and the ugliest presidential contest in our history.
Combine these tribulations with wintertime’s Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), and our mood may become as bleak as the brown Virginia fields near my house. The American Psychiatric Association recognizes SAD as a type of depression, afflicting in its most extreme form about 5 percent of all Americans. Some symptoms of SAD include eating too much, particularly carbohydrates, sleeping too much, and a loss of interest in activities once enjoyed.
