Special to the Press-Citizen

Sweater weather is here! It can be tough for us sun-seekers who long for warmer, brighter days. Stuck inside as we experience an abrupt commencement of winter (and it’s not even winter yet!), our moods can shift dramatically, with sadness and depressive-like symptoms as a result.

Welcome to December, which is Seasonal Affective Disorder (or SAD) Awareness Month. SAD is a type of depression linked to seasonal changes, typically starting in the fall or winter and improving in the spring. Growing up as a child in Seattle, Washington, winter blues were familiar. Of course, we did not call it SAD – and we didn’t hover indoors. Rather, we were encouraged, some might say pushed, to “get outside and play!”

It would be many years until I learned there were ways throu

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