'Sunshine Guilt' Leads To Summertime Sadness For Nearly Half Of Americans — Which States Suffer The Most
We usually think of mental health taking a dip during the winter, but the summer may have just as harsh of an effect.
Aliaksei Kaponia | Shutterstock We’re all familiar with the negative, depressive emotions that come during the colder, darker months of the year. Typically, we think of the summer months as being the literal rays of sunshine that cut through the emotional gray of winter.
However, a recent TikTok trend has led people to share their feelings regarding “sunshine guilt,” or feelings of guilt and depression that occur during the summer. Forbes Health conducted a survey to determine just how prevalent this sunshine guilt is.
Sunshine guilt or experiencing depression and other negative symptoms during the summer is not uncommon.
Forbes Health surveyed 2,000 “general population Americans” to determine how bad symptoms of sunshine guilt were. 48% of participants admitted to having negative mental health symptoms at some point during the summer, with the most typical being anxiety, stress, problems sleeping, and depression.
According to clinical psychologist Dr. Sabrina Romanoff, PsyD, sunshine guilt is a very real thing, and society is complicit in contributing to it. “From marketing imagery, idealized movie scenes, to beach days — the sun primes us to get out and ‘seize the sunshine,’” she said. “Just like skipping a workout or binging on fast food — missing out on a sunny day could cause people to feel responsible for making the ‘wrong’ choice for their health and well-being.”
Dr. Romanoff went on to explain that we often have an idea of what we think we should be doing during the summer to take advantage of the nice weather, but the heat can actually act as a deterrent to doing those things and make us feel worse. That doesn’t change the fact that summer is the season when society tells you that you should be spending every day at the beach or by the pool and taking advantage of vacation time. These expectations simply aren’t plausible in most cases, causing people to spiral further.
Southern states tend to have the highest amount of sunshine guilt.
To determine which states had the highest levels of sunshine guilt, Forbes Health examined evidence gathered by the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey across three years, paying special attention to reports of negative mental health symptoms. Unsurprisingly, the South, where the sun burns high and hot, was found to be the region with the worst effects from sunshine guilt.
The state with the worst sunshine guilt was found to be Oklahoma, which was followed by West Virginia and Mississippi. Tied in fourth place were Louisiana and New Mexico. Nevada rounded out the top five. Up next were Kentucky, Alabama, and Arkansas, which were tied for seventh. The rest of the top 10 was made up of Oregon, Utah, and Tennessee.
Clinical and forensic psychologist Dr. Judy Ho, Ph.D., explained that the climate of these states is probably contributing to these negative emotions. “In hotter states where sunshine is abundant for more of the year, people might feel guilty for not utilizing the weather to its fullest potential,” she said.
“At the same time, high temperatures can cause discomfort, fatigue, irritability and aggression in some — and this can mimic or even increase the risk of depression symptoms — which may explain, in part, the higher rates of sunshine guilt.”
Sunshine guilt is not the same thing as seasonal depression.
Although it sounds an awful lot like seasonal depression, sunshine guilt is not the same. Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is the official diagnosis for seasonal depression and is more common in the winter but can occur in the summer. SAD is mainly linked to the differences in which hours have or do not have sunlight. According to Dr. Ho, SAD affects approximately 5% of the U.S. when it is colder and 1% when it is warmer.
While sunshine guilt is significantly affecting people, and science explains why, it is not a formal diagnosis and should not be treated as such. That doesn’t make it any easier, though.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
