The summer dip makes sad

The simplest trick to remember when the longest day is: make sure you find a best friend who has a birthday then. I have one, ideal. Of course, you shouldn't forget her birthday, like the fool here once did. Then you are officially the worst BFF on earth, but I made it up (really). The situation on Wednesday, on that long summer evening, was a garden including barbecue, the loved ones present, their most handsome son, and cheers. By the way, you completely lose your mind from all that light, because at a quarter to eleven, I thought it was still nine o'clock. But I categorize that under the heading luxury problems.

Just like I only need zero hours of sleep. Or that I think I only need zero hours of sleep. You sleep when it's dark, and because I just moved as you know, there is still a chronic shortage of blackout curtains. So you go to bed when it gets dark and turn a thousand rounds before it is dark. But hey, it's summer and everything is better then. I thought.

There seems to be a kind of person among humanity who reacts to summer like I react to winter. Look, I find that dubious. Apparently, there is something like summer depression or the light variant aka the summer dip. And that summer dip makes this type of person gloomy (yes, yes, there is a secret poet in me). I had no clue, I was ignorant, and it drives me a bit cuckoo. Because how can you get depressed from too much sun, too much terrace, and too much pleasant temperatures? Aside from the fact that you get a bit tanned and just look better. Admit it. I also find my beloved even more attractive in summer, and with that little tan, I also look a bit better.

  “Apparently, there is something like summer depression”

But here's the thing. There are people who become gloomy from excessive light. That can be because they sleep too little, and that makes you agitated (I get that). The pressure that everything must be fun is also greater. Hey, our Kiek wrote about that. Actually, we all recognize that, because I also dare not admit that I secretly did a Netflix & chill when the temperature is above twenty. In that last part, there is still an issue, because nice weather is associated with socializing, and if you are lonely, that is extra confronting. People with summer depression miss the security that winter gives them. You also can't hide in long pants and a loose sweater. According to the latest figures (which date back to 2012, I say: time for new research, universities), it appears that seventy thousand Dutch people suffer from the phenomenon. Wow, that's one in three hundred.

Summer makes everything a bit brighter and more visible. The brightness I get in my head from all that sun and the cheerful tingle from the temperature feels too bright or too warm for others. Just like that haze in winter, which for me acts as a grumpiness-increasing factor. I have the solution. Person with a summer dip, go to something cold and dark in these months. Then I promise that I will soak up vitamin sun when that long, tough, and boring winter announces itself.