Snow has continued to melt as Texas Tech experienced the first snow day of the Spring semester on Tuesday, resulting in the closure of campus. Photo by Melanie Escalante.
By Melanie Escalante / The Hub@TTU
As the sun continues to set early and winter weather is fully upon us, the human body can experience changes simultaneously with the seasons.
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) — more commonly known as “seasonal depression” — is a form of mild depression that occurs when exposure to daylight is limited, typically in fall and winter months.
One of the reasons, Amelia McCoun, a licensed professional counselor associate at Texas Tech’s Student Wellness Center, said, is minimal sun exposure, which consequently, creates a chemical imbalance as vitamin and neurochemical productions decrease.
Plus, people can’t spend as much time outdoors, said Texas Tech Physicians Dr. Kelly Bennett, and instead tend to hibernate and withdraw.
“Because of Thanksgiving and Christmas, we have a lot of activities wrapped around those two cultural things that tend to perk people up,” Bennett said. “But then once that’s all finished, the first week of January, people’s symptoms tend to hit a little bit harder because suddenly there’s no ‘fa-la-la-la-la’ anymore going on and it’s just dark, cold and dank.”
Identifying seasonal depression
Counselor McCoun said before identifying whether someone is experiencing seasonal depression or clinical depression, counselors would first seek a number of signs.
This includes isolation, difficulty with activities of daily living such as personal hygiene, a history of self harm, use of drugs or alcohol to avoid feelings, suicidal thoughts or anhedonia — which she describes as the loss of enjoyment of activities or hobbies that you previously found enjoyable.
Counselors would then find out if the symptoms have been ongoing since childhood, middle school, highschool or if the symptoms occur only during the fall and winter, though Dr. Bennett notes that fall and winter can exacerbate sad and anxious emotions for those who do have a history with depression.
“What’s important is to know that about yourself and to anticipate that trigger,” Dr. Bennett said.
As we head into the spring semester — with colder temperatures and less sunlight — students may find that seasonal affective disorder has impacted their stress levels in more than way, but especially by disrupting sleep patterns.
“That brain-fogginess, that tiredness, that ability to recall information is all impacted if we’re not getting adequate sleep. If that’s happening for someone, that might make their studies much more difficult,” McCoun said. “Because of that, that person might really engage in some negative self-talk — ‘this is too hard, I can’t do this, I’m not smart enough’ — it’s just feeding into that depression.”
She added that humans tend to be their own harshest critics and, by further isolating themselves, can fall further into a self-critical mentality creating a snowball effect as negative thoughts continue to pile up.
“When we’re stuck in that cycle it’s really easy for our brains to convince ourselves of some really negative things and that can impact our self esteem and if we don’t think highly of ourselves, if I think I’m a bad person or I’m stupid, I’m probably not going to engage in behaviors that are opposite of that because this is what I believe about myself,” McCoun said.
Getting help
To combat symptoms, McCoun recommends students utilize counseling services either in the Counseling Center — on the second floor of the Student Wellness Center — or with the behavioral health team located on the first floor.
The counseling center relieves students of distress by offering brief help with a mind spa and short-term counseling between eight to 12 sessions.
If students choose to go to the counseling center they can receive brief help, access a mindspa and can have an average of eight to 12 sessions. With the behavioral health team at the Student Wellness Center, students can receive more intense therapy, and in some cases, prescribed mental health medications, McCoun said.
Services with the counseling center are free and services from the team downstairs would cost almost nothing for students with insurance. Those who don’t have insurance would pay a discounted fee. (Graduate students can purchase insurance through the university and apply it to their student business services fee statement.)
For those whose mental health struggles are rooted deeper than weather, the Center for Collegiate Recovery Communities at Tech helps individuals that are recovering from substance use disorder and started a community for students who are struggling with mental health issues about two years ago.
Serena Shade, senior recovery specialist from San Angelo, Texas, said the group actively serves 50 students and meets four times a week with morning meditation Zoom meetings on Mondays and Thursdays and peer-led mental health support meetings on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
“We just kind of gauge what they may need that week,” Shade said. “Before the holidays, we talked a lot about family dynamics and you know, going home and it may be stressful or it may be different so we talked a lot about family before the holiday break, but we just kind of go off of what energy we’re getting from the group and kind of what their struggles are.”
The second floor of the CCRC is dedicated to students in the group who want to socialize or do homework — a safe haven.
“We have students in our program that have diagnosed mental illnesses, anxiety, depression, all of that, but we also have the students here that are saying, ‘I’m homesick. I just feel isolated. I don’t have a diagnosed mental health disorder, but I’m not feeling all that great,’ and so I feel like we are kind of bridging a gap where somebody just may need somewhere to go, someone to talk to,” Shade said. “We’re trying to reach them before they are in crisis.”
Practicing self-care
Regardless of whether a student is battling a mental health crisis, Dr. Bennett notes it’s important that all college students practice self-care — first, by creating a schedule for themselves and sticking with it.
“Everybody needs to have at least 30 minutes a day dedicated to self care,” Dr. Bennett said. “I always recommend that everybody have a three to five hour stretch of time on the weekend dedicated to ‘me time’ — which is not laundry; it’s not cooking prep; it’s taking care of your soul in such a way that you’re doing something enjoyable or fun.
“I am a strong believer in putting a lot of your emotional abilities into taking care of yourself as a human and not just yourself as a future, whatever (profession) it is you’re going into,” she added.
McCoun said she believes the foundation to alleviating symptoms of depression — and other stressful emotions — is hydration, sleep and nutrition.
“The goal is to try and set yourself up for success in terms of getting as much restful sleep, not just sleep but restful sleep,” McCoun said. “Unfortunately, low energy and fatigue can be another symptom of depression so there might be some things that no matter how well you try and do, you might still wake up tired or wake up often throughout the night.”
Among her suggestions for sleep improvement: Avoiding caffeine late in the day and limiting screen time at night. She also said students should not do their homework in bed as it can unintentionally cause the mind and body to confuse bedtime with study-time.
Most importantly, McCoun said it’s important for those experiencing depression to find their community again.
“Be kind to yourself. You deserve as much empathy and understanding and kindness — as much as you would give to your friends, we have to give that to ourselves, too,” McCoun said. “If you’re struggling and you don’t know what to do, tell someone, ask for help. That’s the first step.”
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