If Kansas City's record-breaking cold snap has you feeling down, you're not alone. Lawrence, Kansas-based psychologist Dr. Wes Crenshaw tells KCUR's Up To Date that his clients frequently mention how winter weather negatively impacts their mental health.
"There does seem to be greater sensitivity to both (heat) and cold. So that those are kind of you might call them irritants for people's depression," Crenshaw says.
But Crenshaw says cold is difficult to isolate as a cause of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). He prefers to combat what he calls the "blah sense that winter brings" by focusing on a different culprit: darkness.
"What we know is that that the light exposure has been tested and found to improve people's affect in the winter," Crenshaw says.
Crenshaw says people suffering from SAD should consider investing in LED lights to recreate lost sunlight.
"You want to pay some close attention to the light spectrum that matches sunlight," Crenshaw says. "You can buy some devices for this purpose that actually mimic a sunrise, and they're pretty cool."
- Dr. Wes Crenshaw, Psychologist
