What Is the Summertime Blues & Can You Be Experiencing It?

I dread summer, way ahead of its arrival. I figured out just how much I do not like the season when I wrote an actual poem about how it makes me feel. Apparently, it makes me feel emotionally drained, exhausted, and with an evident lack of motivation. And I realized it’s not just about liking or disliking anymore. I had read somewhere that some people experience the summer blues, and I confirm that this term is actually a real thing.

What Is the Summer Blues?

According to UCI Health, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is what we call summer blues. SAD is best known as a major depressive disorder manifested in the way people get restless, agitated, and have trouble sleeping and eating. UCI Health notes that the feeling can sometimes get so bad that it may even lead to anxiety and anger.

We are used to hearing people say that they are sad and feeling the blues during the winter months, but people look at you in a very odd way when you say that the blue sky and the sun make you feel powerless. They’ll continue to push you to go outdoors, perform well, and cheer up when really all you want to do is work or stay inside until a rainy day and gray skies replace the good weather outside. Grey skies are my mood shifters.

Despite realizing that there is a coined psychological term to describe the summer blues, we ought to know what is it that triggers our feelings of anxiety and sadness during the summer. 

What Causes Seasonal Affective Disorder?

We were raised with the idea that everything fun happens in the summer. All the romantic movies, teenager shows we used to watch, series and songs are about summer love, summer camps, vacations, and holidays. Poems are written about blue skies, long days at the beach, and people navigating happily across parks as the sun sets in during a hot August day.

Well, this created high expectations that unfortunately are not relevant for all individuals. However, these high expectations for summer are considered to be one of the main reasons why persons with SAD feel anxious throughout the season. They feel like they should be out doing fun things, and their dislike for the beach makes them feel like they’re some bizarre human beings. Quite often, we become victims of the social pressure and decide to pursue all of the summer social activities that we can, only to end up feeling drained afterward.

Other causes of SAD may also be the heat, longer days, which require longer and better work performance, changes in our routine, excessive screen time, and social media pressure – especially related to all the fun people are experiencing during their summer holidays. 

How to Cope with Summer Blues?

Lucky for us, rare creatures, summer grinches, summer is not all hot and dry all the time. As we strive to remain positive towards the three intensive months, let’s cherish the rainy days and thunderstorms whenever we have the chance to, and the walks we can take right after, without even having to put a coat on. Summer nights can also be fun, once the day is over and the temperatures begin to fall. If you can, try to remain consistent with your routine, and make some time to relax in a nice (dark) and chill environment. 

For now, let’s be happy that we’re walking into autumn, and we won’t have to think about our summer blues, approximately until late April!

Photo: polinaloves/Shutterstock

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