{"id":2127,"date":"2018-09-24T00:08:17","date_gmt":"2018-09-24T00:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/?p=2127"},"modified":"2019-06-29T21:20:22","modified_gmt":"2019-06-30T02:20:22","slug":"seasonal-affective-disorder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/2018\/09\/24\/seasonal-affective-disorder\/","title":{"rendered":"Seasonal Affective Disorder"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Lance Lawton<\/p>\n

Winter can be a fun and joyous time for a lot of people in our country. <\/span><\/p>\n

However, some may not agree with the previous statement. Although it is a small percentage, there are plenty of people out there who are diagnosed with Seasonal Affective Disorder<\/a> (SAD).<\/span><\/p>\n

SAD is a type of depression that can be found in different populations throughout the country and the world. This disorder is similar to regular depression, but with a twist. SAD affects people once every year, whether that may be late fall\/winter or even during the beginning of summer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Jon Mandracchia, a Western psychology<\/a> professor, doesn\u2019t specialize in SAD knowledge, but still provides plenty of information about the disorder.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople will figure out if they have seasonal affective disorder after they have experienced it for two years,\u201d Mandracchia said. \u201cI think it\u2019s connected to what we call \u2018cabin fever\u2019 when we\u2019re shut in for a while – we don\u2019t have as much social life as we should. People need to just get up and get active.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mandracchia believes that both depression and seasonal depression share common symptoms.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the symptoms are not that different than what you would think of with regular depression,\u201d Mandracchia said. \u201cYou have feelings of hopelessness and feeling bad, but what differentiates from depression and SAD is could be becoming lethargic, eating a lot and gaining weight.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Since Mandracchia is not considered a SAD expert, Director of Counseling<\/a> Harold \u201cDave\u201d Brown volunteered to give his perspective on the disorder.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe higher populations who are diagnosed with seasonal depression tend to be in areas where there is less sunlight during the day,\u201d Brown said. \u201cSome believe this is why when winter rolls around, a ton of people travel south.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Brown says that there are a couple of ways to help tone down the effects and symptoms if someone is struggling with SAD.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are special lighting tools and SAD equipment that you can buy pretty cheap online,\u201d Brown said. \u201cAll of this special equipment that\u2019s available for those in need has shown to actually provide some benefits.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Both Brown and Mandracchia say that the first place they would send people suffering from SAD is to the Counseling Center, located in Eder Hall 203. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing to do is to recognize that this (SAD) is a problem and it\u2019s real and to go find help immediately,\u201d Brown said. \u201cOnce you recognize it, you can start to come up with a plan to begin confronting and correcting the problem.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Lance Lawton Winter can be a fun and joyous time for a lot of people in our country. However, some may not agree with the previous statement. Although it is a small percentage, there are plenty of people out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":3024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[204,92],"tags":[246,247,248,249],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2127"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2127"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4379,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2127\/revisions\/4379"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}