No wonder I want a pool

I have recently been diagnosed with Reverse Seasonal Affective Disorder or Reverse SAD or Summer SAD. I’ve always had it and didn’t know. I also didn't know there were others out there like myself, over a 1.5 million Americans who are affected. In short, we go against what is considered “the grain” and have trouble coping with all the sunshine and heat in summer. Trouble coping as in depressed. Trouble coping as in loathing that the sun is up before 5:30AM. Trouble coping as in no energy in the summer. We (that’s me and my Summer SAD homies), prefer the darker, cooler days of the year. Prefer is too mild a word; love, adore, come alive, feel as though we can finally breathe. Maybe all that was wrong with Dracula was that he had an extreme case of Summer SAD and quite literally (or literaturely) could not stand the sun. Makes me wonder about Bram Stoker.

The way I manage summer is to turn up the AC until I can etch my name in the frost on the inside of the windows. Or I would do if my husband also had Summer SAD. I’m in shorts and a t-shirt and he’s in long sweat pants, two layers of socs, the hood of his sweatshirt pulled up over his head and neither of us is happy with the temperature.

SAD is an appropriate acronym for both those who need the sunlight and those who abhor it. Sad is how you feel. I am unbelievably grateful for air conditioning. And I am unbelievably grateful the hours of daylight are lessening and the temps are, mostly, getting cooler. Now, bring on enough cold so I can see my breath in the air. I will smile then and be SAD no more.