Millions of people suffer from SAD and might not know they have it.
If you’re feeling sad this time of year, you might have seasonal affective disorder and not recognize the symptoms.
Up to 3% of people of the general population suffer from the disorder, which is prevalent during the times of year with less sunlight, according to , on seeking help
SAD starts in August for me. It’s almost right after that summer equinox, and we slowly start getting less sunlight. I can feel it in my body. I can see it’s 7:30, and it’s sundown. It used to be 8:45, and we were still hanging out on the patio just a few weeks ago. It can create this kind of cocooning. I’m often, as a clinician, assessing my clients when they’re telling me symptoms of depression.
You need a strategy, a plan. How do we break up the winter? Is there something that you can look forward to? If you practice self-awareness, you’ll recognize it may be more difficult for you to fall asleep or you’re sleeping too much. Depression is sneaky. One day you’re fine, and suddenly, the cloud comes.
Don’t stay quiet. Is there a safe person that you know, a friend? The barbershop is usually a place where you know people. You can say it’s kind of therapeutic when you have your guy that you can go ahead and talk to and connect and relate if you don’t feel comfortable sitting on someone’s couch for therapy. Are there podcasts or social media platforms that are speaking about Black mental health and Black men’s mental health that you can tap into so that you’re still at least feeding your spirit and getting some kind of tools to slowly usher you into somebody’s therapeutic office because that’s eventually where we want to go? If you’re a person of faith, who are you tapping into that you can trust, whether that’s a minister, a brother in the church, or your pastor? There’s other resources that are out there. The thing to not do is be quiet. The thing not to do is to suffer in silence because, more often than not, you’re not the only one.
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