{"id":42099,"date":"2018-03-10T12:48:07","date_gmt":"2018-03-10T19:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=42099"},"modified":"2021-02-07T20:33:28","modified_gmt":"2021-02-08T03:33:28","slug":"long-dark-winter-days-can-leave-students-feeling-sad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2018\/03\/10\/long-dark-winter-days-can-leave-students-feeling-sad\/","title":{"rendered":"Long, dark winter days can leave students feeling SAD"},"content":{"rendered":"

W<\/span>hen daylight hours are shorter during the long and cold winter, many students experience seasonal depression.<\/p>\n

R<\/span>esearch from American College Health Association\u2019s National College Health Assessment shows that Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) can hurt academic performance, and cause stress.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe depression actually happened every winter since I was a teenager,\u201d says Sophie Hoang, an international marketing student who has suffered from SAD.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt affects my academic performance to some extent. I would skip classes and leave assignments till the day of the deadline, or even worse, not doing it all together,\u201d she said in an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat winter I skipped nearly 75 per cent of classes and in the end I was just one per cent close to failing the six courses that I took. My GPA went from 3.9 down to 3.5 just after that semester.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoang is just one of many college students affected by a type of depression.<\/p>\n

Eight out of 10 students at SAIT interviewed said that they do not feel motivated to study in winter term.<\/p>\n

\u201cI slept more than 15 hours a day, avoided any human interaction and the majority of the time I had suicidal thoughts,\u201d said Briana Duong, a SAIT architecture technology student.<\/p>\n

\u201cI binge ate as well. I cannot begin to measure the amount of food I ate in a day during that period.”<\/p>\n

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, many college students struggle with depression and don’t seek help.<\/p>\n

Some people said that they did not know where to get help.<\/p>\n

They believe that treatment will not work on them and they think their mental state is nothing out of the ordinary.<\/p>\n

Others worry about being judged or being made to feel weak if they seek mental health care.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think I did anything to overcome it,\u201d said Hoang.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did try consulting my psychiatrist though, and she suggested that I needed to meditate if possible.<\/p>\n

“You know, when you\u2019re that depressed, you can\u2019t really think of anything. Her suggestions didn\u2019t help at all,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that point, I didn\u2019t even want to overcome it, I just wanted to give up and die. However, the depression was slowly shrinking along with the ending of the winter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Norman E. Rosenthal, a psychiatrist, said that exercise during the brightest part of the day and adding more light to your dorm or apartment may help students overcome winter depression.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started going to the gym, eating properly and taking vitamin D,\u201d said Duong.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really hard at first but it enhanced my mood day after day.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Mental Health America, some forms of prevention of SAD include exercising more, increasing the amount of light at home, meditation and other stress management techniques, spending more time outside, and visiting climates that have more sun.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
Winter Joy: <\/strong>Briana Duong enjoys the winter in Calgary on Sunday, Jan. 14, 2018. Duong over came winter depression by eating healthy, exercise and doing outdoor activities. (Photo ,by Minh Do\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When daylight hours are shorter during the long and cold winter, many students experience seasonal depression. Research from American College Health Association\u2019s National College Health Assessment shows that Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) can hurt academic [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":42110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S1 SAD on Campus","footnotes":""},"categories":[1109],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-42099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-image","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"post_format-post-format-image"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/432"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42099"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43847,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42099\/revisions\/43847"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}