Ateneo de Davao University psychology professor Gail Ilagan said human activities are affected by one's surrounding environment. Ilagan refers to seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, as a possibility. SAD, oftentimes related to changes in the amount of daylight during different times of the year, is a type of depression that follows the seasons or weather changes.
She said temperature changes affect the human daily cycle, including intellectual activities.
Meteorologist Gerry Pedrico said that indeed, the weather conditions in Mindanao these days have been observed to be "abnormal". Pedrico is the chief meteorological officer of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geological, Astronomical Service Administration (PAGASA) weather station in Davao City.
He said the cloudy weather and the abnormal rainfall have been there for the past 14 days. In normal conditions, rainy or cloudy days last only three to five days.
Pedrico said rainfall has also been abnormal as the inter-tropical convergence zone is located in Mindanao. He could not tell up to when the weather condition will last.
Ilagan said when the environment around is cloudy and rainy, it affects a person's moods and way of thinking.
Normally in that case, she said, people will lack motivation, which may affect productivity.
"People may have flat emotions. With no sun, they will be unmotivated," she said.
But Ilagan said the effect on the body will soon fade away. "Sooner or later, a person will be able to adjust. As that happens, someone will become more in control. But it takes time, she noted.
Ilagan has two tips: "come to realize that the conditions are there to stay" and "don't let the condition around affect you".
For public health nurse Dyna Alfar, of Davao's City Health Office, the cloudy and rainy weather condition increases the number of people who go to government health centers complaining cough and colds.
Alfar, nurse in-charge of the city's main health center, said she could point it to the weather condition. "Expect more people to get sick during rainy days," she said.
The nurse who has worked in Davao's health centers for the past 11 years said during similar weather conditions, people could get sick easily. They also wanted to rest more, if not sleep.
Jeepney driver Joselito Baynay, 45, said there are also fewer passengers on cloudy days. "I feel like not going to work during days like this," he said.
