If shifting weather and sunlight impact your mood, you aren’t alone: Here’s why seasons trigger bipolar symptoms and how to regain control.
The changing of the seasons frequently affects bipolar disorder.
Typically, depression is present in the fall and winter, and hypomania or mania kicks in during the spring or summer. Sometimes, the seasonal impact seems to be reversed, with summer bringing depression and winter bringing hypomania or mania.
The fact that you have noticed a pattern in your bipolar disorder will help you manage it. Let’s look at seasonal changes from two perspectives: the effects of sunlight and the changing activities that different seasons bring.
What Is a Seasonal Pattern in Bipolar Disorder?
A seasonal pattern in bipolar disorder refers to a predictable cycle where mood episodes recur at specific times of the year. While most people experience low mood during colder months and elevated energy during warmer ones, understanding this personal pattern is key to anticipating shifts and maintaining stability throughout the year.
Why Bipolar Symptoms Change With the Seasons
There’s a major factor in the relationship between the change of seasons and the symptoms of bipolar. Just as the seasons change from one to the next, so too are our activities affected by events that mark these seasons — the anticipation of fall, the frenzy of the holidays, and “the blahs” afterward.
In temperate climates, we may be more physically active in the spring and summer, and tend to hole up in the winter; in warmer climates, the pattern may be reversed. Sometimes, it’s difficult to tell whether it’s our activities that are causing seasonal differences in our experience of bipolar disorder, or whether it’s a matter of how much light and darkness we’re receiving.
Which Seasons Are Most Difficult for Bipolar Disorder?
While winter is often associated with depressive episodes and spring or summer with manic episodes, any seasonal transition can trigger severe mood shifts. For many, the unpredictable shifts in routine and weather during seasonal changes present unique challenges, depending on climate and personal triggers.
How Light and Circadian Rhythms Affect Mood
The daily amount and intensity of sunlight vary with the seasons and our location on the Earth. Seasonal changes, such as increases or decreases in light intensity and the lengthening or shortening of days, can affect bipolar disorder by disrupting the body’s circadian rhythms of wake and sleep.
Sleep and energy are especially important in bipolar disorder, of course. In depression, sleep may be either excessive or deprived, but energy is low. In hypomania or mania, sleep is reduced, but energy is high. In stable moods, the effects of sunlight and darkness establish a normal circadian rhythm, and sleep and energy are well regulated by the brain.
How to Manage Seasonal Changes in Bipolar Disorder
You’ve already taken an important first step: recognizing the effects of the seasons on your mental health condition. Certainly, you’ll want to talk to your treating clinicians about what can be done with your medications to help you feel better. And if you haven’t talked to your prescriber about the use of light therapy to help regulate your circadian rhythms, be sure to have this conversation, too.
There are other practical strategies you can use to stay well:
- Map out your activities for the year. Try sitting down with a yearly calendar that shows the whole year on one page. Mark out the times during the year that seem to cause you more difficulty, as well as those during which you typically feel better.
- Plan in advance. Ask yourself how planning might help you manage difficult times. If you know you always feel depressed after the holidays, plan a special activity to look forward to. If summer is hard, perhaps you can ramp up your talk therapy beginning in the spring.
- Discuss seasonal changes with your support group. Find out how others are dealing with similar challenges, as some of their techniques may work for you.
- Track and evaluate your patterns. Several times a year, check your old calendar to see how accurate you were in predicting seasonal effects. Make a note of any activity changes you implemented that were effective so you can build on them in future years.
Paying attention to your circadian rhythms and seasonal activities can be a key skill in managing your long-term wellness.
UPDATED: Printed as “Ask the Doctor: My Bipolar Worsens as the Seasons Change,” Fall 2011