Here’s What to Know About Summertime Sadness (S.A.D.)
June 5, 2018 – While classic winter S.A.D. is confusing, summer SAD is even trickier. By most estimates, between 5% and 10% of the U.S. population experiences S.A.D.,,Seasonal Affective Disorder. But only a small portion of Americans, somewhere around 1% of the total population, have flare-ups in the summertime, says Dr. Norman Rosenthal, a SAD expert and a clinical professor of psychiatry at the Georgetown University School of Medicine.
Whenever it occurs, SAD can be a difficult condition to diagnose. It’s defined as major depression that follows a seasonal pattern for at least two years, according to the National Institutes for Mental Health. But since it’s a subtype of @depression, rather than a completely distinct condition, it can be hard to tell whether symptoms such as dips in mood and energy, sleep issues, feelings of hopelessness or worthlessness, changes in appetite and difficulty concentrating point to SAD or another type of depression. It can also be difficult to distinguish between true SAD and the less severe “winter blues.”
One weekend in June of 2017, our lives, the lives of our family, and most importantly, the life of our daughter Sydni, changed forever.
When I was a kid, a pet changed my life. It was not our family’s lovable mutt Frisky or even Murphy, my pet duck. No, it was a four foot yellow rat snake named Fred I got for three bucks when I was 13. He lived in a cage in my bedroom. I was transfixed by his enigmatic stare, alien beauty, and ability to swallow a mouse. I was hooked. Within a year, I had a menagerie of scaly creepy-crawlies. And while other kids were rocking out to the Beatles and Stones, I was learning the Latin names of snakes and devouring books on reptile behavior and ecology. In retrospect, Fred turned out to be metaphorical gateway drug that led me to pursue a Ph.D. in animal behavior and to eventually publish papers on topics like the love songs of alligators and the personalities of baby garter snakes.