Every Winter, She Disappeared Into the Basement. Then She Didn’t Need To Anymore.
Dr. John Erickson, DC | Laser & Chiropractic Center of the Rockies | Loveland, CO
Case 014 | Series Post #14
She Built a Light Bank in Her Basement
Not a hobby project. A survival tool.
Every winter, as the days shortened, she would feel herself going under – the depression settling in, the motivation draining away, the spark of daily life dimming to something barely functional. Her doctor had a name for it: seasonal affective disorder.
The light bank helped her manage it. But managing is not the same as fixing.
A Young Mother Holding a Heavy Load
She was a young woman with a toddler at home and a husband working through school full-time. The household ran on her. The finances ran on her. The child ran on her.
That summer had also brought significant emotional weight – circumstances that taxed her immune system and her reserves in ways that wouldn’t fully show up until the season turned. And when it did, the seasonal pattern arrived harder than before.
Thirty to forty-five minutes each morning in front of the full-spectrum light bank. That was her daily prescription for staying functional through the winter months.
A friend introduced her to NAET. She came in uncertain what to expect. Testing revealed she was carrying a significant load of sensitivities across multiple allergen categories. She began working through the foundational NAET protocol systematically.
By the Time She Finished the Basics, She No Longer Needed the Light Bank
The treatments hadn’t targeted her seasonal depression. That wasn’t the framing that NAET worked in. It was addressing her body’s immune reactivity – the sensitivities that assessment had identified.
By the time she had completed treatment of the basic components, she no longer felt the oppressive sense of depression that had defined her winters. She stopped using the light bank. She simply didn’t need it.
She hadn’t come in looking for that. No one had planned for it. But when the immune load shifted, something else shifted with it.
The Immune System and Mood Are Not Separate Conversations
In NAET, we assess and address the body’s reactivity to a broad range of substances – foundational proteins, minerals, vitamins, environmental factors. When the body is carrying a sustained reactive load across multiple categories, the immune system is working overtime. That work has a cost.
One of the places that cost shows up is in neurological and mood function. The immune system and the nervous system are not separate – they are in constant bidirectional communication. When the immune system is in a chronic reactive state, the nervous system operates under that influence.
She had come in carrying an allergic load she hadn’t fully identified. As that load was addressed, the neurological and emotional burden it was contributing to appeared to lift alongside it.
Patient-Reported: The Depression Lifted. The Light Bank Stayed Dark.
She reported that as her NAET treatments progressed through the foundational Basic protocol, the oppressive winter depression she had managed for years did not return with its usual force.
The full-spectrum light bank she had relied on daily through previous winters went unused. She reported no longer feeling the need for it.
The seasonal pattern that had defined her winters – and required a daily management ritual – was not present in the same way after treatment.
Seasonal Depression Has an Immune Component That Rarely Gets Addressed
Research published in the Journal of Affective Disorders has documented that patients with seasonal affective disorder show significantly elevated levels of inflammatory markers – including interleukin-6 – compared to healthy controls.[1] SAD is not purely a light-deprivation phenomenon. There is measurable immune inflammation involved in the winter depression pattern.
A follow-up study in the same journal confirmed that SAD patients have increased macrophage activity and elevated proinflammatory cytokines in winter – and that light therapy improved depressive symptoms while also reducing those immune markers.[2] The immune system’s involvement in seasonal depression is documented, not speculative.
Here is the question this case raises: if seasonal depression involves measurable immune inflammation – and if addressing a patient’s underlying immune reactivity can shift that pattern – what does that suggest about what some people are actually managing when they sit in front of a light bank every winter morning?
She Was Managing. Then She Wasn’t Managing Anymore. She Was Living.
There is a difference between managing a condition and addressing what is underneath it. She had managed it with the light bank. It kept her functional. But it was a crutch for a load that had never been looked at.
When that load was addressed, the crutch became unnecessary.
If you have a seasonal pattern – depression, fatigue, low motivation – that you manage through the winter and wait out every year, it may be worth asking whether there is an immune component underneath it that has never been examined.
— Dr. John Erickson, DC | Laser & Chiropractic Center of the Rockies | Loveland, Colorado
To learn more about NAET at Laser & Chiropractic Center of the Rockies, visit laserchirorockies.com or call 970-412-3212.
Individual results vary. This story is de-identified and shared with permission. It represents a reported patient experience and is not a guarantee of outcome. NAET is a complementary wellness approach and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or medical condition.
[1] Leu, S.J. et al. “Immune-Inflammatory Markers in Patients with Seasonal Affective Disorder: Effects of Light Therapy.” Journal of Affective Disorders. 2001;63(1-3):27-34. PMID: 11246077. DOI: 10.1016/s0165-0327(00)00165-8
[2] Song, C. et al. “Enhanced Inflammatory and T-Helper-1 Type Responses but Suppressed Lymphocyte Proliferation in Patients with Seasonal Affective Disorder and Treated by Light Therapy.” Journal of Affective Disorders. 2015;185:90-96. PMID: 26148465. DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2015.06.003