Seasonal affective disorder, commonly known as seasonal depression, is a depressive period in someone’s life that typically develops during the fall and winter months, where someone feels down and unmotivated, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
Gilbert Gacilan, the mental health clinician supervisor for Cosumnes River College, said seasonal depression is different from depression because depression can occur year round while seasonal depression depends on the season.
“When the time switches, we have less sunlight out and that’s the biggest piece of it,” Gacilan said. “We need the sunlight for our body to recognize, ‘like, oh, I need to be awake, right?’”
Gacilan said the symptoms of SAD include increased melatonin levels, reduced serotonin levels and low motivation.
“If the symptoms are occurring for two plus weeks, we want to look into that a little bit further,” Gacilan said. “Maybe it’s more than just seasonal affective [disorder]. Maybe there’s an underlying depression that’s going on.”
Gacilian said splitting priorities into smaller tasks can help mediate stress.
“‘I’m going to study for this final and that’s it, tomorrow I’m going to work on this project,’” Gacilan said. “So making sure we’re not doing all of these things all one time.”
Akaysia Hill, a mental health advocate for CRC, said comparison culture is another symptom that indicates you are experiencing seasonal depression.
“You’re on TikTok and everybody’s like, ‘I’m taking holiday pictures, I just bought this for my family, I bought this for myself on Black Friday,’ and you’re like ‘I’m sad and broke,’ and ‘this sucks,’” Hill said.
Hannah Clay, a 24-year-old nursing major, said she got rid of all of her social media because she didn’t like how she kept comparing herself to others. She said the quote, “Comparison is the thief of joy,” motivated her deletion of social media.
“It’s become how I interact with others,” Clay said. “I don’t ever compare what they’re going through to something I’m going through.”
Hill said ways to get out of a slump can be standing in direct sunlight for 10 minutes, getting active, reaching out to friends or family, getting enough sleep and light therapy.
Fatima Jarrah, a 19-year-old biology major, said during the summer and spring months she feels more lively. She said daylight savings has her feeling unmotivated.
Jarrah said she uses quotes and poems to motivate herself when she’s feeling down. She said she recently watched a show and a line stuck with her.
“If you have a plan B or C then you weren’t confident enough in plan A,” Jarrah said.
Hill said that you can experience SAD in almost any season, not just winter or fall. She said that for college students it can also take effect during summer break.
“Your routine is interrupted,” Hill said. “‘I’m not studying, I’m not seeing my friends, I’m not in that regular rhythm of like, I know what I should be doing everyday,’ right?”
Gacilan said he wants the conversations surrounding the topic of depression to be more normalized.
“I feel like when we hear the word ‘depression,’ people don’t want to accept or recognize that they might have seasonal affective disorder,” Gacilan said.
Hill said that she wants students to know that there’s help for them on campus.
“It’s easy, especially when we’re depressed to feel like ‘I’m the only one going through this, nobody understands and it might be better if I just suffered by myself,’” Hill said. “I want to let you know that you don’t have to. There’s a community of people on our campus who are probably going through the same thing.”