IT’S NOT ALL IN YOUR HEAD
I
t’s getting to the time of year when getting out of bed can feel like an impossible task. The ‘winter blues’: a slow and steady loss of energy and motivation as the days get darker and colder. Officially diagnosed in more severe cases as Seasonal Affective Disorder (or SAD), the winter months can be a psychologically draining time. Researchers still don’t know the full cause or treatment, but many theorize SAD has something to do with the production and regulation of serotonin (the ‘happy’ brain chemical) and melatonin (the sleep hormone). Vitamin D, hormone replacement therapies, and small lifestyle changes are all recommendations from doctors to treat the issue that affects 6.8 percent of the US population. For teenagers, seasonal mood changes can be more noticeable than in adults due to the impact it has on academic and social performance. “Midwinter always starts to get really hard for me,” senior Elena Martinez said. “When it gets really cloudy and everything is always grey, that’s really tough. Last year when it was snowing, I literally stayed in my bed
By Grace Chinowsky and Tova Gaster Art by Caroline Ashby
for like 2 weeks. I took so many ‘sick’ days because it got really bad.” Timothy Zimmermann, a ninth grade humanities teacher, reflected on the patterns he’s noticed as an educator. “[After the fall] high school becomes school again,” Zimmermann said. “It’s not exciting, your teachers want you to do stuff, your classes get hard, and at the exact same time it gets dark all the time, so for sure the energy drops off.” In academic spheres, not completing assignments or falling behind is often attributed to laziness or bad work ethic. However, mental health can be a significant factor at play preventing kids from succeeding, which can be difficult for teachers to pick up on. “Sometimes kids may give off the appearance that they really don’t care or they’re not that engaged, but [school] is a huge stressor for kids,” Rosie Moore, a mental health specialist at Garfield’s Teen Health Center, said. “They want to be successful and they don’t want to let people down or seem like a failure.” This forces teachers to ask a tough question. “How do you know when a student isn’t motivated because there’s stuff in their life that’s causing them to
do that, versus when they’re just being lazy?” Zimmerman said. “I always assume that there’s some mental health thing...because there almost always is. If someone’s not turning in their homework, Adolescent anxiety, academic or otherwise, has been sharply increasing over the past decades. “I think mental health issues in general have shown a significant increase in the time I’ve been here,” Moore said, who has worked at the Teen Health Center for the entire 20 years it has been open. “Depression used to be the number one problem, but as of late it’s been anxiety and panic issues. I think students have a lot of stress and pressure, both in school and out of school. And just the general climate of uncertainty and worry.” Studies corroborate Moore’s experiences—in recent generations, there has been a significant uptick in adolescent mental health issues. Between 2007 and 2012, rates of teenage anxiety disorders went up 20 percent and rates of suicide and self-harm nearly doubled. Many people connect this trend to the rise of smartphones and their effect on teenagers.
