It’s more than just feeling down in the dumps during the winter. Many people may just glaze over it, but for some, seasonal depression is a struggle they endure each year.
“People might feel like they’re hibernating, so to speak,” licensed professional counselor Scott Thornhill said.
Thornhill works with people of all ages in a private practice in O’Fallon, and works with all kinds of diagnoses such as anxiety and depression. He describes how seasonal depression, also known as “Seasonal Affect Disorder (SAD),” is much like regular depression, but only occurs during specific months. For most people, this is during the winter, but for a select few it can happen during the summer as well. During the winter, SAD has been closely linked to a lack of sunlight.
“The short days make me want to go to bed earlier,” junior Abby Murphy said. “So, I’m not as happy as staying up.”
Sunlight is what gets rid of melatonin in your brain, which is the chemical that makes people feel tired.
“You’re going to likely have more melatonin in your brain during the winter, which just makes you feel sleepier,” Thornhill said. “Serotonin levels can be decreased when you don’t have enough sunlight as well, and so that can also make your mood feel a little bit worse.”
For some, this just naturally happens as light levels begin to decrease. For others, though, SAD may only occur when a dramatic shift happens. This is true for Molly Thomas, a mom who lived in St. Charles for a while before moving to Wisconsin. That first winter after moving, she struggled with feeling down and unenergized.
“I first realized it might be seasonal depression when we had our first sunny day in weeks and I felt like a different person- light, joyful, motivated, energized,” Thomas said. “After that, a friend recommended that I try vitamin D and that helped some.”
Many people cope through the use of light therapy, which can refer to sitting under a light that mimics sunlight, or taking vitamin D. Others like Murphy cope through activities like listening to music, coloring and hanging out with friends, although she still struggles with school during the winter months.
“Some of the hardest parts of having seasonal depression are getting stuff done with the amount of time that I have, and sticking with sports and my classes,” Murphy said.
While at school, other suggested strategies are talking to trusted teachers or even the school counselors.
“The more the students are connected to people and doing things that keeps them connected, the more engaged that they feel, and all of that’s going to factor into it,” responsive services counselor Ann Herman said.
Community is very important, not only for SAD or regular depression, but for any mental condition and for people as a whole. Looking forward, many people hope that society can better understand SAD and empathize with those who have it.
“I think that normalizing it and making people feel less alone in it would be very beneficial,” Thomas said. “My husband is a counselor and he sees a huge increase in intakes at the start of winter due to seasonal depression. This was reassuring for me that I’m not crazyand that a lot of people experience this.”