All the conference tournaments have wrapped up and the tournament field for the 2017 NCAA Men’s Tournament have been chosen on Selection Sunday. Now that all the seeds and matchups are official, the madness and bracket-addiction with the common bracketology signs and symptoms begin to show.

Is March Madness a Real Illness?

Some that have studied Sports Medicine have asked, “Is March Madness a real ailment to be concerned about?” Depending on who you ask, answers will vary. What we do know is that once afflicted with it, there’s really no curing the madness until the month of March is over. In extreme cases, not until late April do some feel better.

Without a solution or even a diagnosis, can you still treat the common symptoms of this rare form of Seasonal Affective Disorder? It’s not simple because there’s not very much information out there on it. However, there are some steps you can take and home remedies that have given some relief from the most-problematic symptoms.

Keep Your Hands Busy with a Empty Bracket

A popular, recommended-by-mom medicine is fulfilling yourself with nothing. Stick with me here. If you’re feeling shaky, then try to get your hands on a completely empty March Madness bracket and immediately start scribbling out your predictions for the tournament. Even after taking that blank bracket and easing some of the anxiety by selecting your teams, you know it’s only time until the nervous ticks start again as you actually have to watch the games and live with your right and wrong choices.

We’re here to treat you. As with many emotional problems, the only true effective remedy is time and April 4th is a long ways away to finally escape March Madness. Until then, you’ll have to deal. Some have sworn that streaming some of the early round games to your phone helps them sleep better at night and reported improved productivity at work, but no scientific studies have supported that claim so start scribbling on your completely blank and empty March Madness bracket.

That’s because studies have shown that filling up the white space and marking up, erasing and writing on an empty bracket can do wonders to soothe the brain and nervous system for up to 27% of fans inflicted with type-2 March Madness.

Brackets that Soothe the Anxiety

In the study, it was shown that the most minimal of brackets were the most effective in treating the disorder. There’s data that correlates the white space with it allowing the brain of those afflicted the freedom to control their environment (e.g. choosing and select is important with March Madness as they’re overwhelmed).

Based on those all important early studies, user research, and data, Interbasket has created two different versions of the completely blank NCAA tourney bracket for those poor souls do they can do their own home treatment of March Madness. Please feel free to yourself!

And here’s a list of related March Madness brackets for you to consider:

This specific ‘March Madness as a Illness’ post on Interbasket was created and categorized as satire, which did not use any real names. If there were any names in this post (and I don’t think we used any, they were utilized in only fictitious manners. Any semblance to actual truth, what seems to be medical reality or reference to any scientific study is strictly coincidental. That is to say that though many engage in March Madness, we don’t think it’s a disease, illness or ailment, and if it was, we don’t think anyone actually wants to be treated with an empty 64-team bracket. We don’t actually believe that’ll work.