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Even mild winters can bring blues
Advice is simple for sufferers of 'cabin fever,' other winter depression
If mild winters cause only mild depression, we'd be fortunate this season. But, that is not the case. Sometimes we can't help it but become depressed. There might be any number of reasons we get the blues.
If you're not one for winter sports and end up staying inside a lot, then you very well might get cabin fever or in some cases, dorm fever. There might be multiple causes for depression including a death in the family, a genetic disposition to depression (it runs in the family), you don't have your own room � thus you might not be able to sleep as well, leading to insomnia, which leads to depression. The country's at war, taxes, life's disruptions, and all kinds of preoccupations might make you blue.
"If it's more than winter blues, talk to some one at the counseling center, and if they diagnose it, get it treated," said Dr. John Hann, medical director of Student Health Services.
Another person to talk to could be your family or personal physician.
"Depression is very common," said Hann, "for students in their four-year adventure of being away from the family setting and more on their own."
According to the Diagnostic Statistical Manual, these are some of the symptoms of depression: hopelessness, helplessness, most of your mood most of the day might be depressed, significant weight loss or weight gain with changes of appetite, sleeping disorders, sleeping more, sleeping less and loss of pleasurable activity where something you'd normally find pleasure is not fun at all.
If you know someone who has these symptoms and are concerned: "I'd talk honestly and directly and tell this person what I was concerned with, " said Jayne Lokken, counselor from the Counseling Center. "When someone has a major depression many times there is pressure by our friends or family to snap out of it. And having major depression is not like that. When there is depression, there is a decrease in certain neurotransmitters."
For students who didn't take biochemistry, neurotransmitters are the chemicals that nourish the brain to make it function properly. They are the messengers between the nerve cells and the rest of the body. They regulate reactions. Scientists at first thought that almost all neurotransmitters were found in the brain. Recently they found receptors for neurotransmitters in every cell in the body. Neurotransmitters seem to be reflective of our emotional state. For example, serotonin, one neurotransmitter � if you don't have enough of it � you have depression. Serotonin production has some relationship to light which is why some people might need more light to stimulate serotonin development.
"Medicine has more neurotransmitters," Lokken said. "For major depression, a prescription would help. For mild depression, increasing exercise, getting enough sleep and eating healthy are positive things to do."
"Don't just sit in your dorm room and play games on your computer," Hann said. "For the college student who has depression, we want it (depression) treated. The goal is to keep the student in school, prevent missed class days, so the student doesn't have to drop out of school."
Some things to do:
- Find out what's happening in the UPB calendar (Snow Daze is coming up).
- Watch a sunrise or a sunset.
- Take walks (the fresh air will be nice).
- Find out what's going on at Campus Recreation, located in Halenbeck Hall.
- Plan for Spring Break, so you have something to look forward to.
- Make goals � they will give you motivation to keep going when you feel burnt out.
- Join one of the more than 200 clubs on campus (something for everyone).
- Go Downtown � a different atmosphere will give you a change of pace.
Tom Meyer can be reached at: [email protected]
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