Wake me up when September ends: Why adults experience the September scaries

I am sitting at the pool, relaxing, tanning, and listening to music. What could be better, right? Wrong.

I was feeling great until I looked at the date, and it’s September 1st! Suddenly, my stomach turned into knots, my heart started pumping out of my chest, and my head started to spin. It's as if my brain has gone back in time, taking a Time Machine to when school is starting.

 The thing is, though, I haven’t been in school in years, so why does it feel like I’m starting school again? Wondering if I will make friends and be “a good student”. That’s my inner child talking, and sometimes it’s hard to remember that I’m not in elementary or high school anymore.

 Why does this happen?

Every year around September, I hear from clients and family members who report feeling down, not because anything has changed in their present life, but because their past memories have followed them into the present.

Emotional imprint of school 

For most of us, me included, school wasn’t just academic, but it also came with drama, pressure, overwhelm, social anxiety, and even bullying. This leaves an imprint that can be remembered when the time of year comes around. With unprocessed stress, our brains bring back up all those unprocessed emotions and can even bring our inner child out subconsciously, and that inner child doesn’t have a calendar in there or any clue that you're not a kid anymore, and can feel stuck in the past, even though we think it’s filed away, we still feel it in our bodies.

Neuroscience of Seasonal Triggers

Our brains are incredible organs, and sometimes they act like Google Photos, reminding us that this time, many years ago, a good or bad memory occurred. Our brains are wired to link time, place, and motion. This is called context-dependent memory. It’s the same way a certain song or smell instantly brings you back to a specific moment. September itself carries unique reminders, the cooler air, sweaters, earlier sunsets, seeing kids with nap socks, and heading to the school bus. These become neural anchors to early life experiences. Additionally, the hippocampus, our memory center, and the amygdala, our emotional memory center, collaborate, and, like the Jonas Brothers sing on their new song, “I keep going backwards,” it recreates the feelings we had in those classrooms.

Reframing September as Adults

So many of you might be asking What can I do to help myself through the September blues? Well, instead of letting past memories control our present, we can rewrite the script.

Here are five tips to help you get through the September blues

1. self-chosen ritual: it’s time to replace the rigid back-to-school feelings with rituals that feel good to you. Maybe it’s buying yourself something instead of thinking about school supplies, or maybe it’s picking up journaling or even listening to your favorite song, whatever you choose, make your ritual your own.

2. Body check-ins: As we discussed earlier, our bodies remember everything, so take the time to check in, notice the sensations in your body, and do some gentle stretching or even dance it out.

3. Inner child letters: It’s really important that we notice and give some attention to our inner child, for some people, that’s using images of seeing that child in a safe place, and for others, it’s writing a letter about what school life felt like to you then, versus what you want that inner child to know now. Reminding them that this is a story from the past.

4. Reclaiming the calendar: instead of thinking that the school year is starting. Shift your perspective to think of it in terms of seasons and cycles of energy. September can become about harvesting what you’ve built instead of thinking of it as tests

5. Ask for help: if things are feeling hard and you are ready to process some of these patterns, finding a therapist to help you process these thoughts and feelings can be a great start.

September can be a particularly challenging month, evoking a range of thoughts, feelings, and emotions. It’s okay to recognize them. I suppose I've finally understood Green Day's song “Wake Me Up When September Ends.”