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Seasonal changes can affect mood

By Peter Lipomi

On April 28, 2011

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As spring weather slowly makes its way to the Northeast Kingdom, it brings a better morale to the barren winter campus.

Everyone on campus can notice the excitement around now that the sun is out and generating heat.

"When the sun is out, I feel more into going outside to do activities… the sun definitely makes you want to do stuff," said sophomore Alex Potvin.

"Sun is an invigorating thing, it makes you active and social," said Kathy Gray, assistant professor in the practical nursing program.

During the winter months, students spend most if their time inside, not seeing sunlight for a long period of time. According to Gray, this makes us less interested in doing things and giving us a more passive view on life.

"Our body chemistry is not meant to be inside, we have evolved to get more sun," Gray said. Gray encourages students to organize outdoor activities and motivate friends to get outdoors.

By exercising, our bodies make chemicals that naturally make us feel better and more upbeat. Vitamin D, used to convert calcium and many other things in our bodies, comes from our skin having contact with sunlight.

As the seasons change so drastically here at Lyndon, a more consistent difference in personal ways of life can occur over the years. Seasonal Affective Disorder can be diagnosed to those who show symptoms.

"Everybody probably feels it, but that doesn't [mean you have] a disorder," said Penny Kimball, a licensed health and drug counselor at the Brown House.

More specific, a Season Pattern Specifier "co-occurs with a larger disorder … [which] worsens depression within seasonal periods," according to Kimball. But there are many symptoms a patient must show before the specifier is diagnosed.

Feeling signs of depression in the long winter months with little sunlight is only the start of symptoms. As spring approaches, the patient will take part in outdoor activities to exercise, but these two sides of the coin are to the extremes.

Hypersomnia (over-sleeping) and overeating are more ways people are affected by the low side of the Seasonal Pattern Specifier.

When the weather gets nicer from the winter months, patients will often exercise to a point where it is uncommon or even dangerous. Kimball used the example that one may kayak six to seven times a week, a bit much for the human body to take given the circumstances.

To be diagnosed with the specifier, a patient must show consistent signs of depression that remit seasonally for two years, according to Kimball. The signs must not be because of an everyday thing that can affect the way you feel for a short period of time