Summary: In Part 1, we looked at how heat, cost, and lost sleep can affect your mental health in summer. This second article covers three more factors — changing routines, body image, and medication adherence — and how counseling can help you manage them.
“How am I supposed to get the kids home from camp in the middle of the afternoon?”
“Everyone is expecting a big vacation but I don’t know how we’ll pay for it.”
Although we tend to associate mental health challenges with winter, the stress of summer can be just as hard — sometimes harder. In the previous article, we looked at how intense heat and humidity, the high cost of vacations and summer camp, and a lack of sleep can take a toll on your mental health.
And for people already managing health conditions, the pressures of the season can make a difficult situation harder still.
Here are three more ways summer weather and activities can affect your mental health — and how counseling can help.
1) New Routines
Work schedules. Childcare and summer camp schedules. Longer commutes to drop off and pick up kids. Different wake-up times and bedtimes, with lots of unstructured time to fill in the middle.
Changes in routine can leave you feeling constantly behind, or a little lost. For children, shifting from the structure of the school day to hours of free time can lead to feelings of anxiety, isolation, and depression.
2) Body Image
Summer styles, bathing suits, and beach weather can stir up real anxiety for anyone who struggles with body image, and social media comparisons only make it worse. Just as people tend to share only the highlights of their lives online, they tend to post only their best photos, too.
3) Medication Adherence
Staying on track with medication can be harder in summer, because some prescriptions can cause adverse effects with sun exposure and intense heat.
If you take medication to manage a mental health condition, talk with your prescriber about whether any lifestyle or prescription adjustments could help minimize those effects. NFSB has an advanced practice nurse (APN) on staff who can prescribe medication, assist with medication management, and answer your questions.
How Counseling Can Help
Counseling gives you a safe space to open up about your feelings, thoughts, and behaviors — a chance to feel heard and understood by a therapist who listens without judgment and offers the support you need.
Together, you’ll work to identify the underlying causes of what’s bothering you, then build coping strategies to handle the pressures of summer in a healthier way — and move forward with clarity and confidence.