As temperatures plummet precipitously in our cozy, snow globe college town, holly jolly times are back in session and finals season is at its precipice, there is a silent yet debilitating phenomenon threatening holiday magic: the winter blues.
Days become shorter, light becomes scarcer and energy seems to deplete during the most merry time of year in a phenomenon known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD). The feelings are not just placebo — but physiologically tangible.
SAD is defined by psychologists in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Disorder Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) as a major depressive disorder with seasonal pattern.
The acronym SAD is as on the nose as modern medicine can get — symptoms include chronic sadness, depleted energy and fatigue, oversleeping and even cravings for carbohydrates.
According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the disorder affects 5% of adults in the United States and symptoms last on average 40% of the year. Seems extreme? Break the numbers down and the scale of SAD is even more shocking.
Forty percent is 146 days, 3,504 hours and 12,614,400 seconds squandered by a lack of sunshine. Unfortunately for students at the University of Mississippi, there is another cold, hard and somewhat icy truth: SAD hits the young adult demographic hardest, specifically from the ages of 18 to 25.
As someone who has struggled with SAD in the past, I know what it is like to wake up feeling seemingly inescapable blues. They tear you down, interrupt quality times with friends and family during the holiday season, hinder study progress during finals season and overall make the winter months a miserable time.
Fortunately, however, SAD is not unbeatable. In fact, it is treatable.
For less intense cases, adjusting lifestyle and homelife habits can make a greater difference than one would think. The most important thing you can do is to increase sunlight exposure whenever possible. Open your blinds, rearrange your room’s furniture so that you’re always within window light’s reach and exercise during daylight hours.
It is also crucial to maintain a routine. While the life of a showgirl (an Ole Miss student) can mean busy schedules, make an effort to ensure you are waking up and going to sleep at roughly the same time every day.
While SAD can hamper social situations, leaning on friends for support can be incredibly helpful. SAD is theorized to affect the hypothalamus, which plays a part in the production of serotonin and melatonin, as well the regulation of the circadian cycle. Spending time with people you love is bound to boost happiness, counteracting the numbing nature of SAD.
Even if you suffer from the most extreme case of SAD, refuse to lose hope. Because it is a clinical disorder, SAD is clinically treatable. Lamps with light intensities of 10,000 lux aimed at a 45-degree angle from the eyes for a half hour each day have been scientifically proven to reduce the severity of symptoms, and in many cases, achieve full remission.
Seasonal depression lamps, as they are advertised most commonly, retail for around $16 on the lower end and upwards of $70 on the higher end. For a treatment you can do in the solitude of your home, silent of night and still of winter, the price seems like a pretty good deal.
While you might not need a prescription for an LED lamp, you certainly do for antidepressants, which are also used by mental health professionals to treat the disorder. If SAD is disrupting your life to the same degree as year-round depressive disorders, talking to your doctor is definitely worth it.
The phrase “feeling the blues” ought to be an oxymoron — winter season should entail holiday joy, so SAD must not sour the season. The winter blues are not incurable, and your sluggish mood isn’t either.
Kadin Collier is a sophomore international studies major from Hattiesburg, Miss.
