Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)! What is SAD? It is another disorder drawn from the objectivity of science (**heavy sarcasm**). SAD is another possible explanation for why people become depressed. According to the study, in months where there is little sunlight, the brain begins to shrink (at least it does in rats). This creates more depression-causing hormones to be released from the hippocampus. About six percent of Americans are affected by SADness.
If the study were true, there would be no depression here in sunny Southern California. However, from my estimation, our sunlit culture pops prozac like Skittles and lives under the dark clouds of their depression despite the year-round sun. There must be a different depression disorder for those who live in too much sun.
This report is simply another way for the poor victim of God’s creation to say, “It’s not my fault; I was just made this way; I’m not responsible” It is eerily similar to Adam’s statement to God (and about God) in the garden, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate” (Genesis 3:12).
SAD is another piece of evidence that Solomon was right: there is nothing new under the sun (or the clouds).
You might question seasonal depression, but depression in general can’t always be blamed on a person themelves. Sometimes there is a chemical imbalance. Sometimes it’s their situation. Sometimes it is themselves. There’s lots of reasons for it and one can’t always just “snap” out of it.
But I agree to blame God for it is wrong.
“Chemical Imbalance” is much like the theory of evolution: assumed but not proven. The question for me is not whether the imbalance is actual, but what causes it? Could a wrong response to life (and a series of life issues) create the imbalance, or did the it just ‘happen?’
As one who has suffered from depression, I know that when one takes drugs to correct the imbalance that might be assumed, it works.
Sometimes it’s a matter of choices as well, but turning to God is not always the answer for some people. For me turning to God had to happen when I was ready and in a healthy mindset, rather than when I was in a state of depression.
My depression was most certainly caused from bad choices, but I think in some people it just happens. Maybe it’s not proven to you, but unless you live with it, you cannot know or understand it.
And some things that are assumed but not proven you just have to accept unless and until proven otherwise. Kind of like God, you know?