Throughout the past month, I have been dealing with seasonal depression. Usually, this doesn’t start affecting me until closer to November, but it hit me early this year.

I often feel that people do not take it seriously when someone says they are dealing with seasonal depression.

This is not a joke. This can really affect your life, mood and personality, and it has done all of the above to me.

Lately, it has been hard for me to even leave my room, and for those of you who know me, you know I am not one to sit at home and do nothing.

I also have not had much of an appetite, and as a result I have been losing a significant amount of weight.

Throughout my entire life, I struggled to gain weight and I did not get to a good weight until about a year ago. Now that is starting to go back down.

I have not done very well in my classes.

I have never been a big “school” person, and I have never been a perfect student. I’ve struggled my entire life, and I know that part of that is my fault for not always taking it seriously, but with the seasonal depression things have gotten worse.

For those of you who think seasonal depression is just another one of those “fake illnesses” that people use as an excuse, you really need to actually reconsider your opinion.

I can assure you that this is not made up, and it is very hard to deal with.

I have tried and tried to get through this and not let it take me down, and I am going to continue to be strong and do this, but it means I have to work extra hard.

I know that when you are affected by depression in any form, your first instinct is to just lay in bed.

Trust me, if I could do that every day I would.

But we cannot do this. If we laid in bed every day, we would never get anything done.

We have to realize that these feelings of loneliness, sadness and darkness are just temporary, and they are not going to be here forever.

I personally believe that as hard as it is going through any sort of depression, we are being tested to see how strong we truly are.

If we can make it through and have the ability to look back and realize that our strength is more than a temporary illness, then it makes our self-esteem so much more.

Another thing we have to do is push ourselves to take better care of our bodies while we are going through seasonal depression.

As I said, I have lost weight because of no appetite, and that is not a good thing.

Not only that, but not eating is not healthy  for our brains and our whole body in general.

Staying hydrated is another thing that we have to do as well.

Yes, depression can make you feel tired and out of energy, but that also ties into us not eating or drinking, either.

Staying in bed all day is not going to make things any better either.

I know that I am a strong person and I am trying whatever I can to make it through this.

I have to continue to have positive thoughts, think positive and encourage myself every day to do better.

It truly is not an easy road to get down, but when you reach the end of it, you know that you are capable of anything.

If you are one of the millions of people suffering from this during this year, please realize that you can get through this. Be strong, fight hard and know that you have the power to overcome anything. You cannot succumb to this.

Andrew Paisley is a senior  journalism major. He can be reached at 581-2812 or at abpaisley@eiu.edu.