As the University of Arizona gears down for the winter season, daily high temperatures in Tucson will drop an average of 20 degrees Fahrenheit from their October levels. This imposes a new environment that college students will have to adjust to.
Physical adjustments will most certainly be felt immediately, but what isn’t as easy to adjust is mental activity. Things like mood, mental status and daily functions become subject to modification as students navigate the shift in how to respond to the transformed natural environment, demanding a nuanced and deliberate adjustment in our cognitive and emotional processes.
Dr. Jordan Karp, professor and chair for the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Arizona, and clinical service chief for behavioral medicine at Banner Health, says that seasonal affective disorder is “a pattern of significant changes in mood that correspond with seasonal changes.”
The symptoms of seasonal affective disorder are expansive and complex; however, there are a few major manifestations that students can look out for when either assessing themselves or looking out for a friend, peer or classmate.
Karp claims that “people with seasonal affective disorder often describe feeling more isolated, slowed down, increased social withdrawal and oblique thoughts.”