is it still called SAD if i feel incredibly depressed during EVERY season? im depressed year long but the transition of all the seasons fill me with an immense feeling of dread. especially the fall and winter, but spring and summer get to me too.

No ....SAD is seasonal affective disorder and it happens in the winter months cos of a lack of sunshine or vitamin D or something like that. So you're either depressed and should seek help or a teenager.

I suppose if you lived in the Arctic you could suffer from SAD all year round but if you're getting regular sunlight for part of the year and are still down in the dumps, you may need to see a doctor and be checked for depression.

I dunno if this is any help but Rathkeale and I were discussing SAD earlier this year. She teaches school in Canada and has bought a sun lamp. She takes it to school in the winter and moves it around the classroom when she notices the kids beginning to wilt.

Dear Anonymous,

Traditionally, SAD - Seasonal Affective Disorder - has to do with not receiving enough full spectrum light in the winters of far northern (or far southern) hemisphere climates. So if your depression is present in all seasons and especially the transitions, the therapy for SAD would be unlikely to help you...not to say you shouldn't try it!

Consider also, however, the possibility that there is just a very deep sadness to life, and somehow we are all asked to look at the sadness and, somehow, say YES to life anyway.

The American poet Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) saw this existential sadness in the cycles of nature. Here is a verse she wrote toward the end of her life, an ironic glimpse at nature's indifference as the season changes from summer to autumn:

"Apparently with no surprise                                                                                To any happy Flower                                                                                                The Frost beheads it at its play—                                                                           In accidental power—                                                                                         The blonde Assassin passes on—                                                                       The Sun proceeds unmoved                                                                                   To measure off another Day                                                                                 For an Approving God."