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Texting Service Might Help SAD People

by Tim Stevens on February 3, 2009 at 08:10 AM

Texting Might Help SAD People

The new uses for texting just keep on coming. A week after hearing that trial lawyers used text messaging (unsuccessfully) in a witness's testimony, we now hear about a plan to help sufferers of seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, to cope with their depression by using text alerts of particularly dire weather forecasts.

SAD affects people who become depressed due to a lack of light when the weather is gloomy for an extended period of time. One of the most common solutions is the use of a light box, which is a bright, diffused light that can help to improve a person's mood if they sit near it for 20 minutes at a time. A pilot program in Cornwall, England will send texts to those with light boxes, alerting them of cloudy, dim days and advising them to get those light boxes warmed up.

Now, if only they could just do something about the weather itself. [From: textually.org]

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Tags: health, light box, LightBox, sad, seasonal affective disorder, SeasonalAffectiveDisorder, text, texting, texts

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