Cold, clouds, snow, depression

If your moods have been as dreary as the weather, you are not alone.

With the region persistently cloaked in clouds this winter, most everyone is complaining. But, for some, the gloominess is more than a minor downer.

Area psychiatrists and counselors commonly treat people who find the weather truly depressing. In many cases, these individuals already are dealing with some form of depressive disorder, and when clouds, snow, ice and cold are added to their lives it can intensify those feelings.

As if the weather were not enough, there also is all that gloomy recession stuff.

“I think a lot of people have been having a hard time, but it’s complicated by a lot of different things going on,” said Leawood psychologist Tracy Ochester, Ochester Psychological Services. “The gloomy weather doesn’t help much. But people also have lost a job or know other people who have lost their jobs, or are under-employed, or they’ve lost a mortgage.”

It is not your imagination that this is a particularly gloomy winter.

Mark O’Malley, a spokesman with the regional National Weather Service forecasting center, said this is a cloudier than normal winter for the Kansas City area, and it is the cloudiest of this decade. While the 2004-05 winter was almost as dark and dreary, this year has been about 10 percent to 15 percent cloudier than any of the previous four years.

That cannot be good news for people with a form of depression called seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, which sets in at about the same time each year.

“Those with SAD tend to have a lower energy level, they’re more irritable and depressive and they really have a desire to hibernate and sleep. They also tend to eat more carbohydrates and gain weight,” said Robert Feuer, a psychotherapist with Counseling Associates of Overland Park.

While there might not be more SAD cases this year, he believes the weather is adding to its miseries.

“What we really have at this point is people who have SAD and have cabin fever on top of that because the snow has kept them indoors more,” Feuer said.

Stacie Ware, who is a transitional living advocate at Safehome domestic violence shelter, fights depression year-round, but especially this time of year.

“It seems that in the long winter months it’s harder for me,” Ware said. “It really starts about January. I don’t get out much, and that’s when I feel it the most.”

To counter the effects, she keeps blinds open at home and work and tries to get outside on those days when the sun breaks through.

At the Johnson County Mental Health Center, evidence of winter blahs is being noted.

“We see a fair amount of that,” said Carol Roeder-Esser, program specialist at the center. “A lot of the people we see already are depressed, and then when there’s no sun and it’s hard to get outside it can get much, much worse.”

It is difficult to determine whether the slightly higher number of SAD cases seen at the county mental health center this year can be blamed on the gloom. Roeder-Esser said the office has more traffic overall because many people have lost insurance coverage and are turning to public health agencies for care and treatment.

There are ways to counter the effects of SAD, but one of the remedies is hard to employ in view of the weather.

“Exercise is the cheapest medicine, especially if you can get outside and get your eyes exposed to that natural sunlight. The more you can … expose yourself to it the more you get those benefits,” Ochester said.

Another treatment possibility is light therapy using a specialized light of just the right type and wattage.

“In the fall, you begin exposing yourself to that light first thing in the morning and do that every morning until spring. They have found that to be of significant benefit,” Ochester said.

The added light is not always recommended, however.

In fact, it potentially can be counterproductive or harmful for people with vision problems and those who have a bipolar disorder or are manic depressives, Ochester said. People in those situations should not undertake the light therapy without consulting a doctor or therapist, she said.

In some cases, prescription medicines are used to alleviate the symptoms.

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