Game Over: Diary of a SAD Girl #2

This winter, I’ll be talking about my battle with Seasonal Affective Disorder in a biweekly column called Diary of a SAD Girl. This is the second (mostly wordless) column. You can read last week’s (very wordy) column here. I don’t know where this column will end, or which path we’ll take to get there, or what forms of media I’ll be using along the way. This week, it’s a cartoon. Next week, maybe I’ll write you a poem in the sky from inside a hot air balloon! Or, you know, just use my typey fingers to make words on the internet. It’ll be an adventure. Me, you, and my Philips GoLITE BLU Energy Light, slogging through the snow and sunless days together.

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Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1718 articles for us.

21 Comments

  1. Thank you Heather for sharing parts of your story. This helped remind me to be patient with my wife and her depression.

  2. This is really well done. I have SAD and the horrific world news hits bad during it, especially when they blare it on a big TV at work and I can’t avoid it. They even have a speaker for it in the break room. I just want to love myself and feel safe, not feel like I have every past winter. Keep doing art, and the arcade machine at the end was really cool.

  3. This is one of the most amazing representations of living with depression I’ve ever seen. Thank you!

  5. So accurate. My SAD has been slow showing up this year, which makes me really really nervous. I’m dreading some sort of full-on holiday breakdown when it hits.

  7. Loved the comics, really cool way to express your struggle. I just wanted to say, I think you’re very brave for sharing this, even more so for continuing this column after having read your Tumblr ‘thank you’piece. You’re a force HH. Don’t forget it.

  8. All ! Of ! This !

    Thank you for sharing, Heather. You’re definitely not alone in this one. I’m doing okay right now, all things considered, but I’m terrified that as soon as it gets reeeeally cold I will start hating my job (walking dogs) and thus lose the one thing that has been keeping me from completely losing my shit for the past six months ?

    But we can do this!!

  11. THIS IS PERFECT.

    I love the juxtaposition between life on the bottom, and the game on top. I love the bag of quarters you get to waggle before SAD cloud and chuck in it’s face before you press continue.

    This is a fantastic comic. If you need more quarters, don’t hesitate to let us know.

  13. this comic rings so, so true.

    Is the little lamp you linked worth the price, in your experience? I have this guy but I can’t really tell if it helps at all.

  15. Aw dude I love this so much! I had a hard time last weekend when the weather changed in my town and it got really cold and the sun started setting earlier. I feel so unmotivated! Its hard, but we’ll get through it.

  16. Keep being kind to yourself Heather, you’re much more deserving of love and contentment than you will ever believe.

  20. The second one! I keep thinking I’m doing so much better this year, and then I spend the whole weekend sleeping. I guess I’m just moving it around.

  21. Hi there! I have SAD on top of my regular, street-variety depression (like that wasn’t bad enough, right?) so this one really hits home. I just found this page today, look forward to seeing more of it!

Comments are closed.