Feeling 'Off'? This Is Why Springtime Can Affect Your Mood

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. On a gray, rainy day in March 2024, Dr. Norman Rosenthal, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical School, called me from Maryland to, ironically, discuss spring euphoria. Rosenthal was the first person to describe seasonal affective disorder (SAD), which is depression that comes with changes of season (usually winter), and he pioneered light therapy as a treatment for this disorder. At the start of our call, Rosenthal considered how the weather, which starkly contrasted the sunny weather earlier in the week, clashed with the topic at hand: springtime mood. "Then I realized that's part of the trouble with spring," he mused. "Yesterday, it was just gorgeous, and maybe it will be tom ... Read full article.