SAD

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) Alina Imai

As summer ends and the time for warm drinks from the vending machine and being trapped under your kotatsu begin, there’s something not so pleasant that a lot of us aren’t looking forward to, seasonal depression. It hasn’t been easy, especially for most of you who don’t have family in Japan, to have drastically altered your living experience so unexpectedly.

We were thrown from leaving our homes thinking “keys, wallet, phone” to “let me double check for my face mask” and although we’ve normalized it, that could very well have been a scene from a dystopian movie. For those of you who have experienced seasonal depression before, you know very well that the shortened days and grey weather can’t help but cloud your mind and sometimes get the best of you. To the people who have just recently experienced what I’m calling Seasonal Depression 2.0 Covid Edition, take a deep breath, straighten your back, and try to remember if you drank enough water today. These days it’s quite hard not to be further discouraged when it feels like every time you open an email it’s about canceled enkai’s or events and your Monday work small talk is no longer about where you went over the weekend instead it’s about how safely you stayed at home but you can’t let that stop you from trying to have fun in any small way you can. It’s heavy and maybe just now bringing it up again made you feel down but here’s what I have learned about dealing with depression, depression is an unfair war between you and your own brain.

Depression will tell you to lay in, cancel plans, isolate yourself and binge watch anything because it’s comforting and doesn’t require any energy but you have to actively fight those thoughts. Similar to working

out every day, fighting depressive thoughts requires self discipline and energy, it’s hard because a lot of times you won’t even realize which behaviors or actions are being controlled by depression and the only way to learn is with time.

My final and hopefully useful opinion is that humans were not meant to be completely alone, we’re sociable creatures that function and feel better when we have other people in our lives. Although we may be physically restricted and bound by covid regulations, you can still get together with friends in your area and make an event out of watching a movie at home with snacks and drinks, maybe even dress up with a theme like the MET gala. You can start regularly scheduling video calls with your family members you miss so you can look forward to those Thursday nights when you know you’ll see their smiles again.

As cheesy as it sounds, we really do need each other and sometimes the best way you can help yourself is by helping others too. You never know who might be casually hiding their depression, not knowing the laughs they could be having or the drunk heart to heart talks at 3am on the living room floor. I know from personal experience sometimes even guilt can factor in, not having responded to messages in weeks, posting memes while ignoring invitations, but start small and just say

Hey.