I thought Seasonal Affective Disorder happens during the winter when daylight time is shorter. Apparently SAD can happen during the summer too, as this article pointed out, because there are two types of SAD.
The difference is that the summer version of SAD reads a bit like hypomania – you can get agitated and have insomnia and loss of appetite and have higher energy levels. That doesn’t sound like “depression like” symptoms characterizing the winter variant of SAD. For those with bipolar disorder, having summer SAD could trigger full blown manias rather than hypomanias, which can be problematic.
Non drug but unproven strategies for treatment of summer SAD may include wearing dark glasses or keeping rooms dark. These are different from treatment of winter SAD where patients are advised to get a dose of light.
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I have always thought something was wrong with me in the summer. I get super tired, where I can barely stay awake, my eating goes out the window and am irritated a lot. I suffer from hot flashes and I’m only 31. It’s been like this since I was a kid. I remember thinking I hated the time change. So my husband and I put in a pool and that seems to help to be able to escape from the heat and exercise.
Hi Lynn, I’m glad that the pool is helping. I do better with longer days (summers) than I do winters. Good thing I currently live in a warm state (CA).
I live in the southwest where summer temps are regurlarly 110-115 degrees. I used to love the summers, but now that I live here in the southwest I notice I’m miserable and depressed a lot during the summer.
So maybe this SAD isnt so complicated. I mean what is so pleasant about 115 degree heat anyway. Or on the flip side if you get SAD in the winter and you live in an area that has four feet of snow all winter then, duh you’re gonna hate it.
Larry: you bring up a very valid and interesting point — depression may not be limited to “winter blues” but more “hostile temperatures.” I remember feeling angry and depressed when I was a little girl, living in Saudi Arabia — and that was one very hot dry place. It would be so hot we’d never leave tape cassettes (this was back in the 70s and 80s!) in the car because the plastic would melt.
OK. What in the world is going on. Ever since i was a child i thought something must have been wrong with me during the summer. It always ALWAYS started during when the end of final, late spring throughout Summer and ended right before school started. It was really weird even when i was in a different country i felt this sense of depression, sadness over come me and i felt completely helpless and anxious for something at the same time. I still feel that way but sometimes i try to busy myself in activities to keep my mind off of it but i find myself with the same gut feeling every time. I wonder if there might be a cure for this because i hate when i get like that during the summertime while every one is in such an excellent mood. A lot of people have noticed this summer depression in me although only ocassionally and not reoccuringly. They just notice or ask me why my mood changes so much sometimes especially during the summer. This might sound like a stupid suggestion, but would green tea, herbal tea help with this? Ive heard of this helping with depression in general and was wondering whether this might be effective with this as well.