How to Get Through Summer When Summer Makes You Unhappy
From the photos posted on the sun loungers on Instagram, a lot of people love summer. They bask in the bright sun, enjoy the heat and don’t pay much attention to the sensation of sand in a swimsuit / sunscreen in the eyes of July and August; As Memorial Day weekend approaches, there are constant watermelons, sailboats, and beach barbecues.
And then there are the rest of us. We are the people hugging one foot of shade along the sidewalk, looking for the closest possible parking spots to the supermarket entrance, who feel like a day at the beach is a lot like the desert alienation scene from The Sheltering Sky .
For me summer is a challenge to my mood, but it can be dealt with: I can handle and even enjoy July and August by changing my lifestyle. For others, summer causes a full-blown depression known as inverse seasonal affective disorder . Just as some people experience a dip in the colder months, others feel uncomfortable in the summer. And, as with the winter blues, the disorder runs along a spectrum: some people get a little depressed; others feel so depressed that they have suicidal thoughts. To better understand reverse seasonal affective disorder and how to deal with it, I spoke with Dr. Norman Rosenthal , a Georgetown professor of psychiatry and author of The Winter Blues .
Light can matter as much as temperature
“It seems obvious,” said Dr. Rosenthal, “but stay calm. There is a lot you can do – take a cool bath and shower. Do not close blinds and curtains to avoid the greenhouse effect in the house. ” If overheating makes you irritable and stressed (like me) or depression, make air conditioning a priority. Some people with summer depression sleep with ice packs or cooling pillows (or chillou ); I have been maintaining Arctic temperatures in my bedroom since early June. People with depression tend to have a higher body temperature at night than people without depression, and Dr. Rosenthal found that patients wrapped in cooling blankets experienced relief from their symptoms (which was brief when they went out into the heat again).
There is a second element to advice on how to keep shadows drawn: “Some backward SAD may be caused by light,” says Dr. Rosenthal. “It is not entirely clear, but I have seen cases in which I am convinced that light is an important factor.” Some doctors believe that light, long days regulate melatonin production and affect mood, just as low light levels affect the mood of some people; others think long days wreak havoc on circadian rhythms and thus disrupt sleep cycles.
And here’s an interesting similarity between people with reverse SAD: Some people report that the bright sun feels like an “attack” or “attack” – this is how I feel walking out the front door into the scorching sun. I do it well enough with a big hat and big sunglasses, and I have tinted sunglasses in my bedroom so I can start falling asleep when the sky is still light (and not letting the 5am dawn wake me up too early) …
But don’t avoid sunlight completely
Dr. Rosenthal notes that he has had patients who intelligently exposed themselves to bright sunlight with good results: he had a colleague who suffered from reverse SAD that came out in the morning for very short periods – 10 or 15 seconds – and she found that short-term exposure combined with other protective measures has a therapeutic effect. If you usually enjoy being outdoors, do it early in the morning or late at night when it’s cool and the sun isn’t as bright. I still jog in the morning and have a cocktail on the veranda in the evening, but I try to be inside during the brightest time of the day.
Go on a journey
One of my priorities as an adult is to spend as much summer as possible in the cool mountains, not in humid, mosquito-infested New York. We can do this because we are in the academic / distance field, which obviously not everyone has, but for large inverse SAD sufferers, summer vacations in any cool place can be beneficial. (Or, if you can work remotely or work in the travel industry, split your time between two home bases.)
At the very least, plan your vacation strategically, says Dr. Rosenthal, and “take a trip away from the equator.” He had a patient who went on summer vacation to upstate New York and experienced immediate relief from a dip in the cool waters of Finger Lakes.
Overcome your FOMO
One of the especially insidious features of the SAD for warm weather is that summer should be a bacchanalia of good times: water skiing, beach play, back porch grill. It can take a while to come to terms with your aversion to hot and bright weather, because it seems incredible – who doesn’t like summer?
“A lot of people feel like a carnival is going on and they are not participating,” said Dr. Rosenthal. “Socialization associated with summer is very difficult.” One of the double strokes of depression is that the person is often unwell due to feeling unwell, and this can be exacerbated when everyone else seems to be having a great time and you want to crawl under the porch like a dog. “It’s terribly important to know who you are ,” says Dr. Rosenthal. “If this is who you are, just be who you are. This is the key to being happy with your biology and psychology. This is something you cannot change. “
I was already in adulthood when I realized that sitting on a hot beach actually elicits a slight feeling of panic, not anxiety. A friend recently invited me to her beach club and my first question was, “Is there enough shade?” But I finally came to terms with it: this is my neurology, and in fact I have my advantages – in October my mood improves greatly, bordering on dizziness, which lasts all March, even when I’m dressed like in Fargo. outerwear and bowing head first in the piercing wind. The sound of football matches and the smell of hearty stew on the stove makes me dance literally.
Exercise, but inside
Exercise is known to improve mood, but a sweaty run in the humid midday sun isn’t fun for people with reverse depressive disorder. I asked Dr. Rosenthal about swimming, and he agreed that swimming is great if you like it, but the effort of swimming – getting to the pool, changing clothes, showering, showering again, changing clothes again – can make it impractical for of many people. people. He recommends purchasing equipment that you can use at home, such as an exercise bike, to do cardio workouts without undue exposure to heat and light. I take my morning run at dawn when I can still go without sunglasses, and this keeps my mood fairly stable all day.
Seek help from your doctor
Depression in warm weather tends to take the form of sleeplessness and excitement, rather than the quiet funk of winter blues, and this excitement can lead to suicidal thoughts. If this is you, see your doctor. Dr. Rosenthal has patients who take medications for seasonal depression on a cyclical basis: in February and March for those who are in the summer, and in the fall for the winter, the amount of drugs increases. If a big hat and a trip to Portland aren’t helping, it might be time to consider a healthcare professional.
As for me, from the beginning of July I will be under my veranda. See you in the football season!