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Friday, June 27, 2003
A Blast of Summer
Hot & Bothered
Mental health experts say it is normal to feel down when the weather is always extreme.
By Jessie Abrams-Morley
Staff Writer
Early June showers bring late June humidity.
It may not rhyme, but that's the way it went around here this year. And though summer is finally here, some wish Mother Nature could have provided a smoother transition between the seasons.
"It just went from winter to summer," said Sue Ryan, 40, of Quakertown as she stood in front of the Montgomery Mall Thursday. "Too hot," her 12-year-old daughter, Michelle, added.
Thursday reached a high of 93, well shy of the 100-degree record set in 1952. Temperatures over the weekend are expected to be in the low 80s.
As local residents recover from a dreary spring and get ready for a hot summer, mental health experts say it is normal to feel down when the weather is always extreme.
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"A lot of people are angry that they essentially missed spring," Shanken said. "Psychologically, there's a sense of loss."
Doylestown psychologist Harvey Ziff said the best way to beat the summer blues is to take advantage of opportunites to get out of the house.
"Try and get active or stay active when the weather does break," Ziff said.
A pharmacy technician at CVS in Horsham noted that her store sold more anti-depressants in the spring, likely due to weather-inspired depression.
Too much snow, then too much rain was to blame, Maggie Santiago said.
Not all local health care professionals noticed the same trend and cautioned against reaching for the pill bottle every time the weather is less than ideal.
Shanken said most people who get upset whenever the weather is bad are not clinically depressed. For these people the most important cure is "learning that life is not all downhill and easy," he said.
Even for those with Seasonal Affective Disorder--a clinical depression caused by a lack of sunlight-- drugs are not necessarily the answer. Shanken said the best treatment for SAD is light therapy, which involves exposure to special light for about 30 minutes to an hour each day.
And the suburbs should be filled with their share of light this summer.
Ken Reeves, a senior meteorologist with AccuWeather, predicted more high temperatures and sunlight are coming our way. Though a summer thunderstorm could hit the Philadelphia area over the next few days, Reeves said the region is finally free of spring showers.
"I don't foresee a change back to the pattern we had," Reeves said. "The last weather system that moved through (last) weekend was the caboose."
That should make Ruta Lavatai, 18, of Hatfield happy.
"I love it," she said. "For girls (summer) is better 'cause they get to show their bodies."
Her friend, Shavanna Belton, 17, of Landsdale saw another advantage to the heat.
"We should go to the shore this weekend," she said.
Jesse Abrams-Morley can be contacted via e-mail at jmorley@phillyburbs.com .