The strange thing is, I generally like autumn. The air is crisp, the leaves change, and most importantly, it’s football season. None the less, I’ve found myself feeling quite deflated recently. As I thought about it, I realize that I often find fall to be a depressing season.

Image Credit: Darren Larson

Here’s my best guesses as to why fall bums me out so much.

Winter Comes

Often the anticipation is worse than the experience. In winter, everything is dark and cold and dead. A little depression is to be expected. Fall is not the time of darkness, but rather the anticipation of it, and sometimes that’s even worse. Each day, the weather gets colder, the sky gets cloudier, and the sun sets a little bit earlier (until the clocks change, and we rob ourselves of an extra hour of sunlight on purpose).

Fall starts in September as a relief from the oppresive heat of August (which I generally enjoy) but the comfortable, energizing days of 70 degrees and sunshine are soon replaced by late October: cloudy, 50 degrees and windy. Somewhere you realize that in a few short weeks, the air will be biting and the sun will be gone.

Seems like a good reason to get depressed to me.

Football

September is the time of hope for every college football fan. Teams usually play cupcake opponents. Your team wins, and everything looks good. Almost every fan can still harbor dreams of bowl games, huge upsets, and conference championships.

October is where football dreams go to die. At some point, for the vast majority of fans, your team is going to get beaten. Crushed. Demolished. They will lose a game they shouldn’t. You will look at the schedule and realize that the odds of that magical season are decreasing.

[Let me put it this way: I'm a Kansas Jayhawks fan. Need I say more?]

For followers of the pro game, October is not as bad. All but the worst teams usually manage to keep their playoff hopes alive until late November or December. Then the crushing depression occurs in winter, where it fits right in.

Seasonal Affective Disorder

This is an actual disorder for people who are depressed and lethargic in the winter. Symptoms include overeating and oversleeping, as well as feelings of depression. It is particularly common in Nordic countries, where winters are particularly long.

However, the majority of people are affected by SAD during the winter. There are versions for the fall, but they are far less common.

Christmas

Anyone who thinks that Christmas is only a winter holiday hasn’t left their house much in the past few years. I once decided to boycott every store that put up Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving. There were so many that I was unable to buy food, and the courageous boycott gave way to hunger.

Christmas looms, and all the stress it brings looms with it.

Expectations

Much of what determines our mood (at least for the many of us who do not practice Buddhist Mindfulness) is not what is happening at the moment, but what we are anticipating. In the dark depths of winter, you can anticipate the rebirth of spring and the joy at the return of greenery and sunshine.

In the fall, there is much to enjoy, but little to anticipate. Every day brings winter closer. The sun sets earlier. The days get colder. Once you get out that heavy coat and turn on the heat, it may be 6 months before you can put it away again.