More Than The Blues

Shorter days got you feeling down? We asked experts about the signs of seasonal affective disorder—and what you can do about it.

- Amanda MacMillan

WHEN SHANA GOZANSKY thinks about the fall season ahead, she doesn’t look forward to crisp autumn air and pumpkin-spiced everything. Instead, the theater director and children’s author, 41, feels an impending sense of doom. “I used to think it was a normal reaction to the end of summer,” says Gozansky, who lives in Watertown, Massachusetts. In truth, her debilitating fatigue is anything but normal: “I feel extremely tired all day, not just mentally—in my muscles and bones, too.”

This exhaustion affects Gozansky’s productivity at work and her social life, and makes it tough for her to keep up with her young daughter. A few years ago, Gozansky was diagnosed with seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a form of depression that doctors say is very treatable.

It’s estimated that about 5 percent of the U.S. population, and close to 10 percent of the population in northern parts of the United States, has seasonal affective disorder. It’s about four times more common in women than in men, research suggests, and can affect people in different ways: Some SAD sufferers experience sadness and mood swings, some feel sapped of energy, and some have physical symptoms like insomnia and weight gain. And while it is normal to feel a little sluggish when the days get darker and colder, there’s a difference between a slight case of the winter blues and something more serious.

A Seasonal Pattern