As the seasons change from warmer to colder temperatures, mental health can change just as quickly. Winter sadness and students’ mental health is a rising problem as the air turns cold and the sun is out less.

Seasonal affective disorder is a type of depression that occurs when the seasons change, and happens the same time every year. The majority of cases develop this depression when the autumn and winter seasons come in, and have decreased symptoms once it’s summer and spring. 

However, stress, sadness, and depression can be found in the colder seasons without having a specific disorder. Many students at Liberty High School feel as if mental health is worse during the winter. 

Studies show that the lack of sun can cause or worsen depression. This means that one of the reasons people have ¨winter blues¨ is because the sun is out significantly less. The sun rises serotonin levels, Vitamin D levels, can help with getting enough sleep, and overall will improve people’s moods. 

School can also be a large problem causing seasonal depression. School can build up a lot of stress on students, which is never good.

¨I think school is a big part of it,¨ said Diana Gonzalez. ¨Some people get stressed out over school, because there could be too many assignments and things like that.¨

¨I think that, well its a couple things, it’s the shortened days, going into the winter time, the sunshine is done, and then i think there’s also some stress around the holidays for all different sorts of reasons for families,¨ said counselor Mrs. Harris. 

Seasonal sadness can cause people to lose motivation and lack the desire to do anything.

¨I feel like sometimes you can’t do certain things because your motivation is down, and you just can’t do things you want to do because your body or your mental health isn’t up to capacity,¨ said Diana Herrara. 

Along with seasonal sadness, Mrs. Harris the main causes of bad mental health in general could be social media and family stress. These factors added to the seasonal changes, make the winter days even harder.

¨The first two things that just popped in my mind together, at the same exact time is social media, and how much that impacts everyone’s mental health, and the second thing that popped up in my mind is parents,¨ said Harris.

Students and teens also have less to build off of to support choices that could be detrimental to their mental and overall health.

Harris said, ¨People at this age, the adolescent age, they´re a lot more impulsive and a lot less experienced. So, sometimes you’re falling in love for the first time or getting your heart broken for the first time. Sometimes you’re experiencing challenging, stressful situations for the first time, so I think the main difference is that people here at this age, they just don’t have a lot of experience to fall back on: to say I’ve been here before, we’ve survived this before.¨

¨A lot of adults have more of that reflection that they can go back and think about,¨ added Harris.

Students when asked have said they look forward to the sunny weather, less stress that comes with school and being able to hang out with their friends more.