“Is light therapy good for summer depression?”
“I’m sad when it’s cloudy.”
“Why am I sad in warm weather?”
I am touched by the Google searches finding my posts about warm weather blues and Summer SAD.
If you’re feeling consistently blue during the summer, it may be Summer SAD, or it may not. While less common than Winter SAD, summer seasonal affective disorder typically affects people who spend most of their time indoors out of the heat and sunshine.
When summer isn’t picture perfect
We have a lot of conditioned expectations about what summer should be like and how we should feel. Summer should be perfect – sun, fun and carefree days. For many of us, that’s how we experienced summer as kids. Those memories are deeply ingrained.
Now we’re adults with jobs, families and lawns to cut. Daily work and family obligations don’t go away just because it’s summertime.
Summer is more intense
Summer is an intense time, with summer sports, festivals, concerts, vacations, traveling and gardening. Add your favorite activities to that list. The days are longer, and often, so are the list of options and responsibilities. Many of us get less sleep trying to do it all.
Who turned off the sun?
Many regions experience frequent summer storms, rain and cloudy days. That natural energy and easiness we had gotten used to is suddenly fogged over when the sun disappears, especially for several days.
That’s when I find myself doing what I now call “drifting.” The focus is gone and it’s hard to stay on task. I don’t feel as bad as I can in the winter, when my energy, enthusiasm and motivation seem to drop completely away.
Light and movement
Sometimes I can overcome drifting by willpower alone, forcing myself to pick a starting point and launch into the task almost mindlessly. The energy of the movement often works to refocus my energy.
But sometimes it doesn’t and lately I’ve found that 15 minutes of light therapy gives an added boost to refocusing. I don’t need nearly the force of willpower to get back on task and decide priorities.
How can you determine where your summer blues come from?
Watch for patterns
Use your calendar and see if you can observe a pattern to your summer blues. If your episodes are related to cloudy and rainy days, light therapy may be beneficial. Exercise that raises your heart rate, gets you moving and breathing deeply will also help lift your mood.
Slow down, savor
Consider slowing down and savoring the summer. The pressure to get the most out of the warmth and sun while summer is here is subtle but strong, especially in the North where autumn, winter and spring can be cold, gray and endless.
Seek help
If your summer blues persist and you find maintaining your normal activities difficult, please see your doctor. Summer or not, depression knows no season.
If you don’t have a doctor and feel you are in need of help please visit:
Befrienders Worldwide at http://befrienders.org
Here are two sources to learn more about depression:
http://www.webmd.com/depression/
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Great article Marsha. It hadn’t occurred to me that this is something that could happen in the summer but it makes perfect sense – just because the sun is out, doesn’t mean we are getting enough of it.
I find by about 4pm I get a really strong urge to see proper daylight, if I’ve not ventured out, which is all to easy when I work from home!
Rachel Mathews´s last [type] ..Where To Start With Your Garden Part 2
Thanks, Rachel.
Light breaks are important. And it just feels good to get out!
Marsha, because of your blog bringing about more awareness of SAD for me, I’ve realized that the reason I’m depressed every summer here in Florida isn’t just because I don’t like the heat — it’s also because I purposely avoid the light! I would even wait until it was fully dark out to walk my dog. So, this summer, I’ve been walking the dog in the middle of the day for only about 10-15 minutes, and I do notice a difference. Yay, awareness!
Yay for awareness! Yay and pat on the back for taking action on that awareness. Bravo for you!
Oh, yes, I’m with Rachel – if I’ve been in all day, by late afternoon, I’m like ENOUGH! MUST GET OUTSIDE! It can get really intense, feelings-wise, until I go out, even just for a few minutes. Then I’m okay again.
@Sandy – So glad to read that the change in routine has been helping you! I know what it can be like there – the summers are so humid, you feel like you’ve become a fish, or need to become one, to breathe that air. So you stay inside, in the blessed coolness, but then you don’t get the sunlight.
So frustrating, sometimes!
Marsha, thnx for writing this! A great reminder that light-deprivation can happen all year round, so we need to take care of ourselves All Year Round.
Very good post and great to see someone reaching out to help others who feel the summer doldrums like they might during the winter, or like I seemed to do last weekend because it was so hot and hard to spend too much time outside.
Birdy,
You are so welcome. Light is a nutrient. We are like plants — if we don’t get enough light, we wilt and droop.
Modern life makes it a struggle to get what we need. Keep up the good work!
Thanks, Todd.
Yeah, summer isn’t always the way it looks in the ads, is it?
Hang in there.
I can’t stand summer. That hot sun. The brightness. The heat.
But when I have been indoors for several hours I have an overwhelming urge to make a cup of tea, put my sunglasses on, and sit out on the back step for 15 or so minutes. Not long enough to get sunburned, but long enough to feel the warmth of the sun, the breeze, and to sit and quietly appreciate the lawn and the trees and the plants that make up my yard. To smile at the cats in their nooks – Sophie beneath the bay tree, Tasha behind the valerian. And the dog, sun-warmed and leaning against my knee. All three totally content.
It took me a long time to realise this need to get outside a couple of times a day, but when I did recognise the pattern I started deliberately making that time, and I feel better for it. Your article is the first time I’ve seen the “phenomena” written about. I somehow feel validated, so thank you.
Thank you, Lynne. Animals do have their ways of adapting, finding shade, finding the breeze. “Green” time and “green” exercise outdoors is always good for us, methinks. Glad you stopped by.
Good article, Marsha.