By Bailey Wimberly
Editor-In-Chief
Editorial
Picture this… you are waking up on the first day of fall. It is cold enough to wear your favorite sweater and jeans, you bought hot chocolate from Starbucks, the leaves are turning orange and slowly falling. Isn’t this the perfect start to the autumn season?
But that isn’t the reality.
The slight cold breeze that was out at 9 a.m. has suddenly turned into 75 degree weather causing you to bake in your sweater. You’re dripping with sweat and your hot chocolate has turned cold, but you don’t even need it anymore so you fall back to your iced caramel latte.
After a full day of classes, the sweat continues as you walk home from your third class. Finally, you sit down at your desk to begin your homework when all of a sudden, it hits you.
It is midterm week, you only got four hours of sleep from studying, Fall Break wasn’t even long enough to go home and you have two midterms due from that weekend. Not to mention the three missing late assignments that you forgot about.
But why does this happen every fall? Why does it feel like a never-ending cycle every year?
Every year around this time, many college students including myself get overwhelmed by assignments, the seasons changing and stress is at an all time high.
Everything begins to merge together, one assignment at a time. Not only do your assignments mesh, but your thoughts jumble together, moving together as the seasons change.
Seasonal depression has been something that has affected me all my life and continues to impact my life yearly. Growing up, my moods have always changed and I have always noticed a dark cloud over me every winter.
According to the American Psychiatric Association, two in five Americans said that their mood worsens during the winter months or colder seasons. In this study, many of them said that it hurts their mental health, especially when the time falls back.
When daylight saving time starts, it can affect people’s sleep schedules, fatigue, mood and their mental health as a whole.
In this study, forty-one percent of people said that their mood declined rapidly in winter.
Even now, as college students, we increase that forty-one percent constantly.
We see continued stress everyday whether it’s work, assignments, athletics, clubs, organizations, or even figuring out how to get to class some days.
Everyday is different and throws you a curveball that can influence this seasonal depression.
College students experience heavy stress. The assignments begin to pile up, the stress continues to overload you and sometimes all you can think about is school before you go to bed.
There is never a time to relax.
Wake up, get ready, go to class, eat lunch, go to class, study, eat dinner, do homework, sleep, repeat.
Every moment of your day is spent thinking about school, maybe even dreaming about it.
Until all of a sudden… it becomes too much.
The gloominess hits, it’s too cold to get up and go to class, your bed is warm enough not to get up for hours and you forget about those late assignments because all that matters right now is you and the warmth you are feeling.
After falling back asleep for three hours, you realize that you missed an exam in that class. You were so stressed out about everything else that you forgot about your in-person midterm for your American Government class.
Interim grades come out in three days. The harsh reality hits you that you won’t have the grades you want and it disappoints you, but how are you supposed to get anything done when you feel like this?
All you want to do is lie in your bed and contemplate life. Stay where it is warm and forget about everything else.
I finally get out of my bed after a long morning, getting ready for my day.
I sigh a breath of relief as I make it to my Winthrop therapy appointment of the week. I get to talk about my problems, rant and work on some coping skills.
“Breathe. Don’t forget to breathe. It will all be okay,” I tell myself, but ultimately…
It is just one more thing we must deal with as college students. Seasonal depression doesn’t put a pause on classes, assignments, or work.
You must keep going. Taking it one step at a time.
