We’ve been constantly analyzing college trends and usual everyday student topics all around the internet and what we’ve noticed recently is the flood of complaints about the summertime boredom, sadness, and despair in teenagers. It spreads like a virus and by the beginning of a studying year each one risks to end up in depression. What are the reasons for this seasonal frustration and how to avoid it? We are going to discuss.
OK, don’t panic, not every bad thought means a seasonal depression, let’s firstly define it as a term. SAD or seasonal affective disorder is a state of mind of a person when he or she feels… sad. Seriously, this word is the best to describe the moody feelings when a person suddenly starts being melancholic and blue. If nothing goes well, an individual has a lack of desire, motivation and energy, loses appetite and/or weight (or, oppositely, has binge eating disorder), has difficulties with concentration, insomnia, and, the worst, suicidal thoughts – these are the signs of depression. Some believe they suffer from it all the year round while others call it a myth. It’s up to you how to name your problem, it has to be dealt with if you’ve already caught it and feel drained
What are the triggers of summer depression?
To treat it, you firstly have to know the causes that are not hard to guess at the end of summer:
- Changes in your schedule. Every student turns studying rut into an active or passive rest. In summer, we tend to change our habits: eating, sleep, physical activities and socializing. This short-time disbalance doesn’t necessarily affect our general health conditions but has an impact on our mood for sure.
- Heat is one of the factors that influences on your health seriously and can turn you into a summer-hater. According to the statistics, when interviewed on hot days, people were less satisfied with life than when asked on warm or cool. Moreover, the level of interpersonal conflicts and violence rises by at least 4%.
- Come-back syndrome appears when you return from some nice place where you’ve spent your best vacation ever. You can’t help recalling all those moments, cocktails, waves, first love, etc. and thus become passively sad, nostalgic and introvert.
- Perfect body pursuit can also make you feel depressed if you fail to achieve wanted results within a short time. Having complexes about your body (even if it looks great) lowers self-esteem and a student is left with his or her own fear to show up on the beach or anywhere else.
- Empty pockets become even emptier with every passing day. Okay, I’ve spent some money to have fun in summer but… why am I so poor now?
- Don’t-wanna-go-back-to-school (-college / -university) attitude covers up all the previous points. The closer we are to the next semester, the more upset some of us are.
End of summer is not an end of the world
Despite all these can lead to problems at college, social withdrawal, and even alcohol or drug abuse, a person may be saved in time if treated correctly. The first thing here is to realize the existence of the problem and perceive each of the aforementioned from the other point of view and do your best to change it.
- So, first, make up a new schedule. Let working days be “working” and weekends stay free. It doesn’t mean you really need to find a difficult work to do, but stay alert from Monday to Friday and try to do at least one useful thing per day.
- It’s hard to avoid going outside in hot summer days to keep from heat, and you absolutely shouldn’t. In moderate amounts and if safely, the sun affects your organism positively, just take some protecting creams and oils. Get beautiful bronze skin and great mood!
- When you come back home missing your vacation, try to continue your vacation at home! Organize a welcome-back party and gather your friends to make a presentation of your trip. If you brought them some gifts, make a souvenir ceremony and have fun watching your ridiculous videos. Don’t have such? Well, be more forward-thinking next time.
- Get rid of the thought that you don’t have beach-ready body, it’s August already! Stop watching pics of perfect celebrities’ shapes and do some training instead. Remember, you can transform your body beyond recognition while you’re young, so you’re on the right way. You’ll be even more terrific if in summer you don’t forget about water regime and good sleep. Work on it and don’t hurry, think of why you need it – to impress your friends from the photos just right now! immediately! or to be proud of your own achievement of the beautiful and healthy body.
- Don’t waste money on useless things. Seriously, do you need that another one T-shirt? Leave it for the next year. And be patient, sooner or later, the money will come again, it’s not worthy of depression. And, in any case, you may find a temporary summer work if times are really bad.
- Hand out with friends, who also don’t want go back to studying, together you’ll definitely find a way out to your low spirits. But don’t mix up with deeply depressed if you have the same symptoms, they may only take you down to the bottom. And to distract yourself from the bad thoughts, try all the previous points, walk on fresh air, eat fruits, and thank us later! You may be sure, the depression will never come if you have the right attitude!
