CNN) -- You know spring has sprung when hundreds of people daily turn to Twitter to vent about their itchy eyes, dripping nose and uncontrollable sneezing and coughing. And if it's not obvious that allergies can ruin a person's day, watch how many tweets go by that use "allergies" and the f-word in the same sentence.
Seasonal allergies, which affect about 36 million Americans, aren't just an annoyance; many doctors agree there is a real connection between allergies and mood.
"'Cranky' is really the best word for it," says Katie Ingram, 30, of Alexandria, Virginia, a triathlete who suffers seasonal allergies. "I take a lot of medication for it and that makes me sleepy. And I can't do a lot of the things that I like to do outside, so that makes me cranky. ... The wheezing part of it makes me feel tired."
In some people, such annoyances are more serious. Research has shown there is about a doubling of risk for depression in a person suffering allergies and, if you've been seen by an allergist, that about triples the likelihood of having depression, said Dr. Paul Marshall, neuropsychologist at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Those are correlations found in scientific studies, but they don't show that allergies cause clinical depression. In practice, allergy-connected mood changes usually boil down to mild depressive symptoms, like feeling sad, lethargic and fatigued, Marshall said. Some people say they're more likely to cry during the allergy season. Allergies could make symptoms even worse in a person with clinical depression, experts say.
"It's important for people to understand that experiencing allergies can affect their mood," Marshall said.
To read the rest of the article: http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/04/20/allergies.depression.moods/index.html?hpt=SbinGreat article Lynn! I have suffered from seasonal allergies my entire life, and take Zyrtec on a daily basis, year round. Spring is especially bad, and it does make me moody and fatigued. And it can get depressing when it's so beautiful outside but you're afraid to go out. Even my dog suffers from spring allergies and just got a steroid injection and is getting eye drops three times a day. Allergies are certainly no fun! I have problems in the Spring and Fall. I take Allegra and it really helps. I'm glad you liked the aticle. We allergy sufferers need to unite The area in which I live is bad enough in Spring, but our native trees don't drop their leaves in autumn - they flower, = pollen, = runny nose, leaky eyes, sneezes in human beings Makes me happy to see all the colour; not happy to be speaking to someone and assuring them that just because I am sniffling and wiping tears from my cheeks, I am not sad lol! Anti-allergy tablets make me sleepy and I am a sleepy individual anyway, so try to avoid them. Am fortunate that I am not so badly affected as others - no wheezing. Hi JasmineRain.Greetings!