Video: Winter Causes the Blues?

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Starkville, Miss. (WCBI) –Enough, already.  This weather is enough to make any of us lose our patience.

Children become stir crazy when they can’t enjoy recess outdoors and adults lose interest in outside activities.

Old man winter can put a damper on anyone, but some experience it at a more intense level.

“When the weather has been really gloomy like it has been over the last month. It just really gets you down in the dumps,” says MSU students Brandon Anderson.

We’ve all experienced it before. The grogginess and depression that comes along with overcast skies, chilly temperatures, and rainy afternoons. This depression, is known as seasonal effective disorder, or SAD.

MUW counselor Craig Watson says the onset of SAD is typically around fall or winter.

As we are right in the middle of winter, lots of folks are starting to feel the effects.

“We believe it is related to an absent of radiation of sunlight. The decrease of certain chemicals in your body that make you happy,” says Mississippi Climatologist Mike Brown.

But there are some things you can do to help fight the battle of the winter time blues.

Watson suggest, “go outdoors and get as much sunlight as possible. Exercise is a really good treatment, light therapy or psychotherapy counseling.”

Technology has steered us in the direction of light therapy as a way to change the chemical balances in our brains, and lift our moods.

Brown encourages folks who are suffering from SAD to “get a full spectrum bulb for their home which will emit radiation and just like the sun, would emit radiation that does seem to help folks.”

Although you can seek treatment from a professional, some find it’s the simple things that lighten their spirits.

Anderson finds that his key to staying happy is, music. The upbeat rhythms keeps his spirits high.