If you are having thoughts of suicide, or someone you know is in immediate danger, you should call 911 (or your country’s local emergency line) or go to an emergency room. Explain that it is a psychiatric emergency and ask for someone who is trained for these kinds of situations.
Dr. Norman Rosenthal, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical School, called on a drizzling, gray day from Maryland to talk about spring euphoria. Rosenthal was the first person to describe seasonal affective disorder (SAD), depression that comes with season changes, typically winter, and he pioneered light therapy as a treatment for it.
In the beginning of the phone call, he thought the weather, which was in stark contrast to the beautiful weather earlier in the week, clashed with the topic at hand: spring-time mood.
“Then, I realized that’s part of the trouble with spring,” Rosenthal mused. “Yesterday it was just gorgeous, and maybe it will be tomorrow or the next day, but it’s up and down.”
We talk a lot about the health impacts of daylight saving time and low moods during winter, but the energizing, and sometimes erratic, effects of spring deserve some digging too. For many, especially those who live in more seasonal areas of the world where there is a dramatic shift from winter to warmer weather, and those with seasonal affective disorder, that first gust of spring air can bring with it a big burst of energy, improved mood and even mild feelings of euphoria. It’s not a medical term, but we can also call it “spring fever.”
As someone who grew up in the Midwest and now lives on the East Coast, I’ve always counted on those first few days of spring to boost my mood and reenergize me. To me, that shift from dark to light, bitter-cold to sunny-defrost feels like the first few sips of coffee combined with warm sunlight hitting your face. And judging by the number of people who are suddenly inspired to clean their homes and our natural draw to sunlight as human beings, I know I’m not alone.
But like spring, our moods and our reasons for them are far from straightforward, according to Rosenthal, who noted it’s not as easy for everyone as “it was dark, now it’s sunny; I was sad, now I’m glad.” Not only can feeling euphoric during that first warm week indicate a mental health condition that needs attention, such as bipolar disorder or other mood disorders, but the up-and-down nature of spring can bring with it other factors that impact our mood, like changing relationships, changes in day length and more.
“These things all have to be accommodated by your biology and your psychology,” said Rosenthal, who’s also the author of the book Defeating SAD.