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Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

Winter Blues

With the grey skies, gloomy days, and cold weather creeping up on us it is very common to experience a shift in our mood. You may tend to find yourself more sluggish and down than usual. Seasonal Affective Disorder, SAD, is a form of depression that is developed with a seasonal change into the winter months. Due to the limited amount of sunlight, our bodies lack vitamin D resulting in a decrease of serotonin, the happy hormone and increase in melatonin, the sleep hormone.

What keeps you on the grind?

I often find myself walking through each day, doing what I need to do, performing the tasks I need to complete, without really thinking about why.

Why am I spending hours studying this again?

Oh yeah that’s right. I have a test next week.

And the grind continues. But I realized that my train of thought was incomplete. In fact, the train's engine hadn’t even started. There exists an infinite expanse of answers as to why I put in effort each day, but a test next week was not the one I was looking for.

Dealing with Isolation

Most people are ok with being cooped up at home for a week or two. Being the hardcore introvert that I am, I’d be fine with even a few months of not going outside. Just focusing on my hobbies and using social media would be enough for me, entertainment-wise.

But alas, an entire year has passed.

Even for me—the one who spent 3 full days barely speaking to a soul for the sake of completing a piece of digital art, and the one who enjoyed every minute of it—it’s getting lonely. ಠ_ಠ

Getting Better Sleep

There’s an old meme I remember hearing about from friends before I was coming into university. “Good grades, sleep, or a social life. In university, you can have two.” As a high school student, I laughed it off. I’m not laughing anymore. I might be too tired to. (They never told me you weren’t guaranteed any of the three options!)

I don't know about you, but the title of this post really speaks to my level of engagement this past week. This is also evidenced by the delay in getting this post out. As Wellness Coordinators, Renate and I are certainly not unfamiliar with such impacts as motivation, energy management, cognitive load, and emotional regulation. Interestingly enough, we're also intimately aware of that beautiful phenomenon that can often derail and dissuade any task, action, or activity we have intentions of completing. That's right, friends.