This quintessential summertime song celebrates all those magical moments we imagine this season to be: Barbeques and backyard dancing, the freedom of cruising in a car you love, flirting in the steamy evenings, kids outside playing, hanging out with friends.

Summertime can be all that – but it can also be stressful. And sometimes that’s hard to talk about when we hold on to these idealized images and worry that we will be seen as a member of the “fun police” for bringing up complaints during this supposed-to-be-care-free time of the year.

But let’s face it, there are some things about summer that aren’t always a relaxing walk in the park. Summer stressors can be environmental, physical, social, and/or emotional.

Environmental/Physical

In most parts of the country, summer is well, HOT. And getting hotter. Global warming trends bring intensified weather, and concerns about global warming are now part of the anxiety landscape for many people. These weather patterns can bring dramatic summer storms with flooding rains or drought conditions (or both) – and with them the potential for damage to our property, infrastructure, and even our physical safety.

Heat and humidity are truly oppressive for some people and can be outright dangerous at times.  Excessive heat can make you feel lightheaded, nauseated, headachy, and shaky, risking dehydration, heat exhaustion or heat stroke.  These are serious conditions which may result in the need for medical attention.

More insidious, prolonged stretches of hot weather tend to lead to less healthy habits like decreasing outdoor exercise and ordering out for food versus cooking healthier meals for yourself. People are also prone to stay up later in the summer, leading to issues with sleep deprivation.

Another summer stressor is those bloodthirsty bugs. Biting and stinging insects buzz in abundance, carrying risks that range from annoyance to deadly toxicity.

And while not everyone will have encounters with them, beasties from rats to raccoons, snakes, coyotes, and bears are also more active in summer. If you’re an outdoors aficionado, relevant precautions are in order.  

Social-Emotional

Several aspects of summertime can be challenging at the human interpersonal level as well. Lots of people experience changes in schedules; kids (if you have them) may be out of school and work colleagues may vanish on vacations leaving additional tasks for those left behind. Schedule changes tend to especially impact women, who still carry the primary burden of childcare and have been shown to lose more hours at work over the summer than do men.

If you can have vacation time yourself, planning and execution of your trip can be stressful. Finding the right place to stay, arranging various forms of transportation, packing decisions and lugging that luggage all contribute.  To say nothing of wrangling family and friends. If you have pets, are they coming with you or do you need to find pet care? There’s a lot of moving pieces. Oh, and if you’re not going on vacation, you may be feeling envious of those who are!

Of course, all this summer fun carries expenses as well. Managing finances through the summer can take careful planning. For example, if you’re working full-time, have kids, and school isn’t in session, extra day care may be needed. Travel is costly. Maybe your utility bills skyrocket as you try to keep cool.

In terms of your mental and emotional health, heat exacerbates underlying mental illness and psychoactive medications may interfere with your body’s ability to regulate itself. Some people experience a variation of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD; also called seasonal depression) in summer. This is more common in areas that have longer summer/hot seasons than in areas that have long, cold winters. Most of the research on SAD was originally conducted in cold climates, but more recent findings show that seasonal depression can occur in summer as well. Symptoms often intensify over the season. If you are consistently sad, can’t concentrate, don’t enjoy things you used to, feel bad about yourself, or have other common signs of depression, seek help from a mental health professional.

Last, but not at all least, body image issues can really get accentuated over the summer. Not only does the heat itself make covering up unappealing, but the social pressure to show off more skin is very real.  Media saturates us with images of young, ripped, and beautiful people in swimwear throughout the summer. Advertisers for everything from gyms to prescription weight-loss drugs to tummy tucks to butt-enhancing underwear are every-ready to prey on your insecurities (and divorce you from your hard-earned cash). Social comparisons are rampant as we eye others who surround us.

P.S. Sometimes summer is just boring. It’s all re-runs and some things slow down or shut down. Even boredom can be stressful in its own sluggish, unfocused kind of way.

Surviving Summer Stressors

Luckily, there are lots of strategies to assist with summer struggles! Here are some key points:

• Be planful. Whether it is just managing daily chores in the heat or putting together a family excursion to the water park, giving yourself time to plan and organize will allow you to factor in unique summer considerations. Keep an eye on the weather forecast so you’re not caught unprepared.
• Try to maintain positive health routines. If you love outdoor exercise, see if you can arrange things so that you’re avoiding peak heat and sun exposure. Here’s a great resource for avoiding heat-related illness: Recognizing and preventing heat-related illness – Mayo Clinic Press. If it’s too hot to cook, experiment with cold meals; with produce in its prime over summer there are lots of healthy and delicious options. For those bugs and beasts, do your tick checks, keep your home and surroundings sealed, clean, and dry. Never feed or approach wildlife.
• Temper social comparisons. Comparing ourselves to others seems to be an automatic and ongoing process. But you can make conscious decisions about where you focus that attention. Upward comparisons (gauging yourself and your life against gorgeous, rich, and powerful others) are going to make you unhappy. However, if you focus on those similar to yourself or even those with more struggles, you quickly become calmer and even much more appreciative for what you do have. Alternatively, spending time doing absorbing activities, be those work or leisure, keeps you from dwelling on the ways you may perceive yourself to be “less than.”
• Set boundaries with family and friends. Don’t overcommit to requests from others that will drain your personal resources to excess. Say no to preparing mac & cheese for 200 people at your niece’s outdoor summer wedding! No, you can’t babysit your friend’s three kids and her crazy dog for a long weekend while she goes on a romantic getaway.
• Practice self-compassion and gratitude. If you can’t handle 95-degree heat or you are terrified of wasps, don’t beat yourself up about that. It’s okay to be who you are. Try taking a few minutes each day for thankfulness – even the small things that make your world enjoyable and sustaining are worth focusing on and will improve your mood.  
• Get help. When you find yourself chronically unhappy or anxious, seek assistance. If stressors are piling up and you’re having trouble just making it through your daily work or home tasks, it’s time to reach out for some support and resources. There is no shame in this – you’re taking care of yourself and by extension, those you love.

If summer strains are a struggle, we’re here if you need us! Please reach out for a brief consultation or to set up an appointment. Click here to visit our Contact page and get in touch with one of our therapists! Contact Us – Wellness 360 Dallas – Mental Health Therapists

References

Folk, J. (2021). Summer anxiety – Why you can feel more anxious in the summer
https://www.anxietycentre.com/faq/more-anxious-in-the-summer-anxiety/

Griffin, R. M. (2023). Tips for summer depression. https://www.webmd.com/depression/summer-depression

Griffiths, S., Austen, E., Krug, I., & Blake, K. (2021). Beach body ready? Shredding for summer? A first look at “seasonal body image”,

Body Image, 37, 269-281, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2021.03.004

Mattingly, S.M., Grover, T., Martinez, G.J. et al. (2021). The effects of seasons and weather on sleep patterns measured through longitudinal multimodal sensing. npj Digit. Med. 4 (76). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-021-00435-2

Mayo Clinic (2021). Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) – Symptoms & causes – Mayo Clinic

Nevarez-Flores, A. G., Bostock, E.C.S., & Neil, A.L. (2023). The underexplored presence of seasonal affective disorder in the southern hemisphere: A narrative review of the Australian literature. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 162,170-179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2023.05.003.

Price, B. M., & Wasserman, M.  (2024). The summer drop in female employment. The Review of Economics and Statistics; doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_01469

Walsh, B. (2025). The case against summer.