With the winter season in full spring, the Wilson Counseling Center hosted “Move Through the Blahs” on Jan. 17, a virtual event aimed to provide students with the tools they need to combat seasonal depression. Twenty-three people attended.

Formally known as major depressive disorder with seasonal pattern, seasonal depression typically presents itself around the end of fall into winter. Symptoms include lower energy levels, trouble sleeping, changes in appetite, craving starchy foods and loss of libido. These symptoms usually present themselves over the course of three or more winters.

“If you think about when we have, we may start the day with sunlight but by the end of the five o’clock or so it’s getting dark, so people aren’t getting outside and getting sunlight,” said Pat Glascock, associate director of the Wilson Counseling Center. “Sunlight and light in general is very important to our sleep pattern and to our health in general. The lack of getting enough light is one speculation for the reason that seasonal affective disorder presents itself.”

The Wilson Counseling Center staff presented numerous ways to combat seasonal depression, including improving one’s diet, participating in talk therapy, following a daily schedule and speaking with supportive friends and family.

The program concluded with Amber Long-Martin, director of the Wilson Counseling Center, leading a light stretching exercise to encourage movement.

“There’s a lot of physical benefits to stretching. It improves blood circulation,” Long-Martin said. “It also helps with your range of motion which helps prevent injuries. It takes your mind away from those things that you’re worrying about, or maybe you’re feeling sad about or you’re feeling anxious about. When we give our mind sometimes just a five minute break, it can help put us in a better and healthier space.”

Long-Martin added that while playing sports, working out, yoga and dancing were all good examples of movement in everyday life to help with seasonal depression, students who may not have a lot of space could practice some light stretches.

These stretches include dropping one ear to one shoulder then slowly rotating the head and stretching one arm across the body for 10-15 seconds. Long-Martin also recommended deep, focused breathing throughout the stretches. 

“Make sure that you take your stretches slow. You never want to rush into them. You never want to bounce or use force to get into that stretching position,” Long-Martin said. “You want to focus on feeling the stretch, but you don’t want to feel pain.”

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