In the Shadow of Winter 

A Deeper Look at Seasonal Affective Disorder

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) often gets described as “winter depression,” but that phrase barely scratches the surface. From an existential and psychodynamic lens, SAD can feel less like a simple reaction to darker days and more like a quiet, recurring descent into an inner landscape that mirrors the outer season.

An existential perspective: when the world dims, meaning flickers

Existentially, human beings are meaning-makers, living in a world that doesn’t always cooperate. Winter, with its shortened days and muted colours, can feel like the environment withdrawing its invitation to engage. The light goes, and with it, a certain sense of aliveness.

SAD can be understood as an intensified confrontation with existential givens:

• ●  Isolation: As social activity reduces, the sense of separateness can sharpen. The world feels further away, people less reachable.

• ●  Meaninglessness: The usual structures that provide purpose like activity, movement and connection lose their vitality. What once felt engaging can feel flat or hollow.

• ●  Embodiment and limitation: The body slows, energy drops. This can feel like a reminder of our limits, even our mortality.

• ●  Freedom and paralysis: Existential theory speaks of freedom as both gift and burden. In SAD, the reduced energy and motivation can create a painful tension between what one could do and what one feels capable of doing.

  Winter becomes symbolic. It can echo an inner “wintering,” where parts of the self feel dormant, disconnected, or stripped of meaning. For some, this stirs deeper questions: What sustains me when the external world offers less? Who am I when I am not “doing”?

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A psychodynamic perspective: the return of the internal winter

From a psychodynamic viewpoint, SAD may be less about the season itself and more about what the season activates internally.

Darkness, cold, and withdrawal can resonate with earlier emotional experiences:

• ●  Loss and absence: Shorter days may unconsciously evoke early experiences of separation, neglect, or emotional unavailability. The fading light can symbolise a withdrawing caregiver or lost connection.

• ●  Regression: Lower energy and increased sleep can be understood as a form of regression, a return to a more dependent, inward state where unresolved feelings may surface.

• ●  Unprocessed affect: When external stimulation decreases, internal material often becomes louder. Feelings that are usually kept at bay by busyness may emerge: sadness, anger, longing.

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• ●  Internal objects: The “darkness” may not just be environmental but relational, an activation of internalised figures that feel critical, absent or unresponsive.

  In this sense, SAD can be seen as a seasonal reactivation of an internal emotional climate. The external winter provides the conditions in which the internal world becomes more dominant, sometimes overwhelming.                                                                                                                          

  Where both perspectives meet

  Both existential and psychodynamic approaches converge on a key idea: SAD is not only about light exposure, but about our relationship with the world, with others and with oneself.

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• ●  The existential lens highlights a disruption in meaning and connection with the world.

• ●  The psychodynamic lens highlights a reawakening of internal relational patterns and emotional histories.

Together, they suggest that SAD is both a loss of outer light and a turning toward inner darkness—and that darkness may carry both pain and information.

Symptoms of SAD

People experiencing Seasonal Affective Disorder may notice a cluster of emotional, cognitive, and physical symptoms:

• ●  Depressed mood: Feeling persistently sad, anxious, or empty.

• ●  Loss of interest or pleasure: Decreased interest in activities you once enjoyed.

• ●  Low energy: Feeling fatigued or having low energy levels, even with sufficient

  sleep.

• ●  Changes in sleep patterns: Sleeping too much or experiencing insomnia.

• ●  Changes in appetite or weight: Craving carbohydrates and gaining weight, or

  losing interest in food and losing weight.

• ●  Difficulty concentrating: Finding it hard to focus or experiencing brain fog.

• ●  Feeling hopeless or worthless: Negative thoughts about oneself or life in general.

• ●  Social withdrawal: Avoiding social interactions or feeling disconnected from

  others.

• ●  Irritability: Feeling agitated, easily annoyed, or experiencing mood swings.

• ●  Physical symptoms: Some individuals may experience physical symptoms like

  headaches or body aches.                                                                                                                      

  A gentle closing thought

  SAD can feel like being pulled into a dimly lit room with no obvious exit. But from these perspectives, the room is not empty. It is furnished with meaning, memory and parts of the self that may not get much attention during brighter seasons.

  The work, therapeutically, is not only to “get out of the dark,” but to understand what the dark is holding, saying, and how to move through it without losing oneself inside it.                             

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