By Gary Craig, Emotional Freedom Techniques

Dear Dr. Mercola,

You recently included an article on seasonal affective disorder (SAD) in your newsletter and suggested several ways to find relief for the depression resulting from a lack of natural sunlight. Among your suggestions were light therapy, diet modifications and regular exercise.

In addition, we have found the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to be an effective, drug-free way to address depression of any kind, and we would like you to add it to your list of depression remedies.

Clearly, depression falls into the category of emotion-based illnesses, as the symptoms can usually be described as uncomfortable feelings, rather than physical pain. Although the effects of SAD and other forms of depression can be identified and treated as chemical imbalances, clinical studies with EFT have discovered the cause of those effects and imbalances is usually unresolved emotional issues.

Consider the following case history on EFT applied to depression. Maggie is a non-therapist who used EFT to eliminate her own depression and a number of other long-standing issues (stage fright, sad and angry feelings, love pain, etc.). Seasoned EFT practitioners will recognize other issues were likely contributors to her perpetual depression.

"I'm 58 years old and have had a perpetual low-grade depression all my life that has never [until EFT] gone away. It has always been there in the background and at times it was very intense.

"I read about your free download [of the EFT Manual] and downloaded and sent for your training. In two days, I had healed stage fright and I started in on all my sad and angry feelings ... not to eliminate them but to heal them ... and self-esteem and the birthright happiness ... Well, that was about a month ago and I haven't had any depression.

"What's interesting, however, is that even though I've had all these changes I tend to forget how bad things used to be. That's real progress, I think. My friends comment on my changes and often I have to stop and think about what it used to be like. My healthy attitudes seem so normal now."

The shortage of natural sunlight may well trigger a variety of emotional responses from one person to the next, thus causing a disturbance in the energy system. Any person suffering from SAD can simply focus on the particular feeling at the time, use the basic EFT procedure and often find instant relief by realigning the energy meridians that were disturbed by that feeling.

In some cases, however, the emotional issues may not be directly related to the lack of sunlight, and might be a bit more complicated. Fortunately, a few initial rounds of EFT often cause other related issues to come forward, so until the relief is complete, it's important to keep tapping on whatever comes up. Ultimately, if we can find and treat the cause of the illness, we can avoid medicating the symptoms and potentially remove the depression for good.

Although the EFT procedure is easy to learn and apply, there are practitioners all over the world who can apply their experience to your issues, if you prefer.

Gary Craig is a pioneering developer of EFT, a profoundly effective emotional/mental healing approach. Read more about his EFT course, and learn how to use this wonderful energy psychology tool with the free manual available on Dr. Mercola's Web site.