Hope in a Light Box
My battle with Seasonal Affective Disorder
I remember waking up for school every morning and upon exiting my room at the far end of our house, I would open my door to find my father eating his breakfast while reading a book before heading off to work.
Shining brightly at the edge of the table, facing him and his book and his breakfast, was this — Alaska Northern Lights — Northstar — 10,000 LUX Bright Light Lamp.
I was a teenager when he first got it so I vaguely knew what it was for. However, to the barely opened, tired eyes of a 14-year-old girl, it was too damn bright for 6:30 AM as I meandered past him and towards the bathroom.
Dad sat in front of this light during the coldest, darkest mornings of the year in our little town in upstate New York, where our winters are among some of the coldest and most miserable in the country.
It wasn’t until years later when I was 18 years old when I first started to feel a taste of what my dad had gone through for most of his life as a person who battles Seasonal Affective Disorder aka SAD aka Seasonal depression.
You know…”the winter blues.”
Sure, many people who live in climates that have 6–9 months of deep, frigid winter have it. It is almost a way of life for those of us who grew up with…
