When the Buffalo sky is like one endless gray blanket blocking the sun and mountains of dirty snow are piled up to reveal small, disappointing patches of brown grass, a cloudless day and a warm breeze make the world seem like a much happier place.
The change in weather does more than just warm the body - the break from cold to warm sometimes signals a break from a seasonal depression that affects many people.
Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, is brought on during the fall and winter months when there are fewer hours of sunlight.
Nichole Gardea, a licensed clinical social worker and counselor in Student Health and Wellness, said that it is important not to diagnose yourself and to talk to a counselor if you feel you may have the disorder.
"One would have to have the symptoms of SAD occur for two years in a row around the same time to be diagnosed," Gardea said.
According to Gardea, a majority of people suffer from milder forms of the depression and experience a few of the symptoms. These can include increased tiredness, difficulty concentrating, increase in appetite, a desire to be alone and little motivation to get out of bed in the morning.
It's not a myth people often feel dreary and tired during the gray days of late winter and early spring, but some people can feel symptoms of depression as early as fall.
Riane Corter, a freshman psychology major, does not have Seasonal Affective Disorder but said she is familiar with some of its symptoms.
"I feel more sluggish and irritable during the wintertime," she said. "I find myself complaining about things a lot more."
Although Corter associates winter with Christmas, breaks from school, skiing and other pleasant activities, along with those comes the more pessimistic outlook of the season, the kind that poets and creative writers use to fuel melancholy pieces.
"Cold air, dead trees, the earth just seems frozen and dull in winter," Corter said.
Of course, this kind of viewpoint would be less prevalent in an area like southern California, where the moderate temperatures all year mean mild winters with plenty of sunshine.
"Environment definitely plays a factor in the disorder," Gardea said.
The longer and more extreme the winter is, the more people in that area are affected by depression. SAD is also more commonly found in women than men, especially those in their 20s and 30s.
Gardea said a good way to avoid seasonal depression is to spend time outside in the winter, even when it's overcast. It also helps to be near windows when you are inside.
A treatment called bright light therapy, which has been found to help decrease the symptoms of SAD, exposes patients to fluorescent light without UV rays, for anywhere from 15 minutes to three hours.
Corter said that keeping a lot of lights on, pushing herself to work out when she felt sluggish and going tanning helped her to stay positive during the winter months.
"Seeing myself tan reminds me of the summertime and that makes me happy," she said.
According to Gardea, one should eat well-balanced meals and avoid the urge to eat sugary foods with no nutritional value to prevent the onset of SAD. Exercising regularly will also help curb mood-swings.
Of course, now as the temperatures stretch into the 60s and chirping birds signify the arrival of spring, many students find that their moods are uplifted, even if their motivation to do schoolwork dwindles.
"It's easier to wake up in the morning now that the sun is shining through my window," said Sarah Karpie, a freshman undecided major.
For others who have grown up in the Northeast, like freshman undecided major Brad Loliger, Buffalo winters are not a shock. Still, he said it's easy to see how the warmer weather creates a friendlier atmosphere on campus.
"When you go outside and see people laying in the fields and doing work on the picnic tables, you notice everyone's a lot nicer and happier," he said.
Although students are affected by the cold wintry months in different ways, for most people the spring means more time spent outdoors and in the sunlight. For Corter, this leads to a change in her frame of mind.
"I'm in a better mood so I focus more on the positive," she said.
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
