Seasonal Depression

Hello friends—here we are in the doldrums of January. For those of us dealing with Seasonal Affective Disorder (aptly shortened S.A.D.), the dark and gloomy time of year can feel especially heavy. Year after year, I’ve tried numerous approaches to dealing with this issue: light therapy, exercise, travel, etc. What I noticed about all the previous approaches is that my goal was always attempting to “cure” or avoid the depression. I would then find myself frustrated, out of energy, and nowhere close to feeling good.

Now, please do not think that I’m opposed to treatment. I take medications (year round) and maintain a consistent self-care routine. And if you are struggling with depression (of any kind) please talk to someone you trust about it and seek professional help.

But the more that I’ve examined my reasons for pursuing multiple interventions, the more I’ve been drawn to Scriptural passages that emphasis the seasonality of life—particularly as it is part of the created order. These passages seem to accept equally the ease and hardship of life. Here’s a few that stand out to me:

Seasons Set in Motion

And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years. (Gen 1:14) In this passage (the first of two creation stories), God makes what we know as stars and planets and other heavenly objects. These things are created specifically for signaling different seasons and time periods. This reminds us that the earth was set in motion…to move! Rather than bemoan a hard and heavy season, we might do better to accept that they will come and that essentially nothing has gone wrong when things go wrong!

Partners: Joy and Sorrow

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance… (Eccl 3:1-4)

You knew I’d get to this one! While we might identify killing and weeping as bad times, the writer here makes no claim that life is meant to be all living and all laughing. Moreover, the writer invites us to look at these experiences as partnered rather than opposed, despite their contrast.

 Spring in Light of Winter

¹⁰   My beloved speaks and says to me: “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away;

¹¹   for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.

¹²   The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come… (Songs of Solomon 2:10-12)

 I really love this one! In this song, the lovers not only sing about the joy of being together but also about how wonderful being together is after a long time of being apart. In the same way, the flowers and singing in the spring are even more precious after reflecting on the winter and rain.

You may notice that all these passages come from the Hebrew Bible. What I appreciate about the Hebrew Bible is that it displays a worldview inseparable from our physical bodies. And let me be very clear, depression (seasonal or otherwise) is something that happens to our bodies. We tend to think of “mental health” as something separate from our physical health, as if we would have a mind without a body!

Our culture promotes a lie that we are meant to be happy and productive all the time, and if we aren’t—something is wrong with us. We must need to try harder, buy more, get more, or be more. But what if we bodies considered that there are seasons when it’s dark and we’re sad? What if we didn’t spend time and energy chasing emotional perfection and constant bliss? What if we allowed joy and sorrow to be partners instead of enemies?

Perhaps, like the seeds, we may find that growth happens in the dark.