6 Signs of Summer Depression

Did you know that you can get SAD in summer? No—not just sad, the emotion, but seasonal affective disorder, a type of depression that’s related to seasonal changes. Most people think SAD only happens during the gloomy winter months as a result of the lack of sunlight and warmth, but around 1 percent of people suffer from this mood disorder during summer.

The two variants of SAD cause similar feelings, but manifest in very different ways—those who suffer from winter SAD tend to gain weight and feel sluggish. But summertime SAD causes just the opposite, often manifesting in agitation, anxiety, and a host of other unique symptoms.

Many people mistake summertime SAD for other situations, such as severe anxiety about wearing bathing suits in public, for example, or irritation from vacation envy. But these symptoms go beyond what is warranted for these situations—they’re downright debilitating, in many cases, and caused by an imbalance of chemicals in the brain and your body’s clock being thrown off by the summer sun.

Left untreated, SAD can develop into social withdrawal, suicidal thoughts, and problems at school or work. But if you learn to spot the signs of summertime SAD, you can seek treatment by making a trip to your primary care provider and providing him or her with a list of your symptoms.

So to help you learn to spot the symptoms before they harm you, let’s take a look at 6 signs of summer depression.

Anxiety

The biggest indicator of summertime seasonal affective disorder is a constant, nagging anxiety. But this isn’t just any anxiety—this is a feeling of intense agitation that grows worse with the heat and increased sunlight.

Dr. Alfred Lewy, professor of psychiatry at Oregon Health and Science University, suspects that people stay up later in summer because of the extended daytime hours, throwing their body clocks for a loop. He thinks that this condition could also be caused by an overdose of sunlight—this is why summertime SAD is more prevalent in areas with more prominent summers, like the south.

Whatever the case, if you find yourself extremely anxious during summer days, but feeling calm and relieved upon entering a cool, dark room, you might have summertime SAD.

If this is you, don’t be afraid to stay out of the light this summer—you’re not obliged to leap into the waters and go hiking every day just because summer has rolled around. Do what feels best for your own unique brain chemistry, and you’ll feel much better.

Trouble Concentrating

Trouble concentrating goes hand-in-hand with anxiety, and it’s an extremely destructive symptom for those afflicted by summertime SAD.

Pay attention to your patterns. Do your grades drop in the summertime? Do you have a history of poor work performance, or even firings, during the warmer months, only to do great for the rest of the year? Or perhaps you simply become utterly unproductive in the summertime?

Summertime SAD can cause you to become easily distracted and unmotivated, leaving you wide open to any distraction that comes your way. You’ll find yourself wandering off task, forgetting what you’re doing, and constantly getting in trouble. The disruption in your brain’s chemicals and your body’s clock can quickly sap the mental energy you need to stay on task.

Does this sound like you? It might be time to pay a visit to your doctor before this particular symptom wreaks havoc in your relationship, professional life, or school activities.

Insomnia

Insomnia is a condition in which the sufferer has great difficulty falling asleep during normal sleeping times, or has difficulty reliably staying asleep. Often, those suffering from insomnia overestimate the amount of sleep they get, which means they don’t know exactly how sleep-deprived they are.

Summertime SAD isn’t like winter SAD—it doesn’t cause the sort of depression that leaves you sleeping for 18 hours a day. No—summertime SAD causes restlessness, and one of the chief signs of this condition is the inability to get some shut-eye.

This is likely caused by, as Dr. Lewy says, a disruption in sleep patterns, which throws off a sufferer’s sleeping schedule. You can combat this by designating a bedtime each night that corresponds with the time you’d normally hit the bed—don’t stay up just because there’s still a little light in the sky.

This symptom of summertime SAD can actually worsen all other symptoms, so don’t let it go unheeded. Get help, set a schedule, and get sleeping.

Weight Loss

In another big departure from winter SAD, summertime SAD causes a loss of appetite rather than weight gain. If you’re finding yourself consistently and inexplicably losing weight, and are reluctant to touch the barbeque and sweet tea this summer, you might have summertime SAD.

Make no mistake, though—this weight loss isn’t a good thing. The combination of heat, too much sunlight for your physiology, and jumbled neurotransmitters can cause you to lose interest in food, and a loss of food means a loss of nutrition.

Like insomnia, this lack of vital nutrients can exasperate your other symptoms, taking your SAD from bad to worse.

In combination with other symptoms, this is one of the most telling signs of summer SAD—if you’re experiencing it, make sure that you eat well, regardless of appetite, and seek the attention of a doctor if you keep losing weight. Don’t let summertime SAD ruin your picnics this year.

Increased Sex Drive

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Most people associate depression with a decreased interest in sex, but one of the odd symptoms of summertime SAD is an increased sex drive.

This is a product of the agitation and anxiety associated with the summer variety of seasonal affective disorder—everything is more, not less, and often uncomfortably more, bordering on mania.

While this may not be as harmful a symptom of summertime SAD as some others, it’s something to look out for—if your sex life has inexplicably changed during the summer months, and if that change is accompanied by any of the other symptoms on this list, you may be suffering from SAD.

With more severe cases, it won’t just be your sex drive that becomes more intense, but your aggressiveness and anger, as well. If you’re finding yourself irritable and easily enraged, this can also be a symptom of summertime SAD.

Don’t ignore these symptoms—especially when in combination with others. Left untreated, they can send you down a dark path of self-destruction.

Feelings of Isolation

When you’re sad in the wintertime, you can find comfort in all the other people who dread the weary winter months. But in the summer, feelings of sadness, anxiety, and emotional discomfort can leave you feeling isolated when everyone else seems to be having a great time. You may feel like you’re the only one in the world who feels bad when spring and summer roll around.

Because of your feelings of isolation, you may begin to feel envious of your fun-loving peers. You might find yourself unwilling to put yourself in risky situations, such as going to the beach in that new bathing suit.

That feeling of disconnection can be awful. If you feel like this—as if the world is passing you by each and every summer—you might have summertime SAD. This is, next to anxiety, one of the biggest indicators of this subtle mood disorder.

If this is you, seek help. A mental health professional will likely be able to pull you out of the SAD bubble and set you back on track for a fun summer.