Any summer haters out there? I didn’t think to write about summer depression until the cool website Mermaids of the Lake asked me to. (You must check out their site, because the photography alone is worth the click.) But then again, I have covered all the other seasons: “12 Winter Depression Busters,” and “5 Ways to Manage Autumn Anxiety,” and “Spring Depression.” Hell, let’s be honest, I’m depressed every damn season. So it made sense to cover summer depression. But I was unprepared for the feedback of the masses!
In my piece, “6 Tips for Summer Depression,” I list a few reasons why the neural connections blow a fuse in the heat: summertime SAD (opposite of wintertime SAD, when the light has a negative impact), disrupted schedules (that’s the big whammy for me), body image issues (okay, I’m there too), financial worries (checkmark that one as well), and the heat (ironically, considering that my fingers, toes, and lips turn purple in cold weather, I’m cool on that one!).
Having come out of the closet as a semi-summer-hater, I’m getting mail from all kinds of summer haters, and laughing my bathing suit right off. I loved the blog post by Sarah Callender called “Inside-Out Underpants.” After a litany of reason why everyone in Seattle looks forward to summer, she writes:
In spite of the sun finally doing its job, in spite of me getting to exercise a bit more, in spite of a more relaxed schedule, in spite of the opportunity to take a break from Everyday Math and Reading Logs and packing school lunches, in spite of the fact that I take my Zoloft communion wafer every morning without fail, summer ends with me feeling like I’ve been injected with a massive dose of BLAH. Like I’ve pounded a grande quad-shot of I FEEL SO HEAVY AND WEARY. Like I should be wearing a t-shirt that says, Really? This is supposed to be fun?
And I feel pretty terrible about that. I like to think of myself as a hopeful, optimistic person who’s got a really amazing life. So why do I hate the summer?
I DON’T KNOW!
I really don’t know either. I mean, yes, I’ve listed the reasons (it makes me look like I have my act together to write those pieces … 8 ways to unhate summer, 7 ways to barbecue your enemy on the grill, 6 ways to stop hating your body at the pool) and all the reasons make sense.
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