Edel Coffey: September is giving people The Fear

Edel Coffey: September also includes a bonus level for mammies

Have you heard of September anxiety? Apparently, it’s a thing. You may have heard people talking about Mercury being in retrograde recently, or the full moon making us all a bit batty.

Both of these things are regularly blamed for everything from cars breaking down, long airline queues and even that argument you had with your husband over whether clingfilm can go in the microwave or not. If things are irksome, clunky, or just not going as well as they could be, it’s either Mercury in retrograde or the moon. But it turns out at this particular time of year it could be something else entirely — September anxiety.

It makes sense if you think about it. 

September simultaneously marks the end of summer, good weather, long evenings, and slow starts. 

September is the month where we put away childish things and return to the serious business of our mundane schedules. The weather gets worse. The traffic is back with a vengeance. 

This year, in particular, September seems to be giving people The Fear.

After our first ‘normal’ summer in several years, it seems like we’ve all packed three summers’ worth of travelling/socialising/activities into the last few months and now we have all arrived at September exhausted, depleted, and drained, rather than rested and refreshed. 

It seems we have arrived at September with a bad case of communal burnout.

September also includes a bonus level for mammies, which is, after a summer of entertaining the kids, we get to co-ordinate the organising of the uniform list and book lists for the return to school and get back on the lunchbox production line/chain gang. 

Then at 9am we redirect the dregs of our attention to the to-do list, which now includes the backlog of accumulated postponed jobs from the summer.

September anxiety is real. One mammy I know will only refer to September by what she calls its full name — ‘Fucking September’. The animal kingdom knows a thing or two about September, too. The sensible ones amongst them simply take to the bed and don’t get up again until springtime. Unfortunately, that’s not an option open to many of us.

September really is the Sunday night of all of the months. If you listen closely, you can almost hear the theme tune for Glenroe playing quietly in the background.

But what exactly is September anxiety or the September blues or September sadness as it is variously known? It’s not Seasonal Affective Disorder, a recognised condition that brings low moods during autumn and winter months to those affected. 

September anxiety is more like the deflated feeling you get when you consider the question of when exactly is the right time to put the patio furniture away for the year.

But it’s not just to do with the weather either. September can be quite a pressurised time of year. I know, for me, September is a steep re-entry to the world of regimented schedules, scant flexibility and the juggle of many moving parts. That’s never something I anticipate with relish. I have to keep a timetable sellotaped to the back of my hall door so I can keep track of who is supposed to be where and at what time. Not to mention the accompanying cost of the various activities.

September also operates as a kind of countdown to the end of the year, and brings a sense of time running out, so it always feels like there is a bit of in-built pressure to complete all of the things you hoped to achieve this year.

But these don’t have to be negative aspects. A return to routine can be a relief, as it gives a more balanced structure to our days and weeks. As a former swot who loved school, I can’t help but feel a sense of renewal with the beginning of each academic year.

September is a time to get organised, to line up your biros and pencils and make a study plan; to chart a path to your goals. 

Matt, Paul, Prue & Noel are back on our screens 

September can be a great time to focus, plan, and decide what you’re going to do with the rest of the year. Three months is still a lot of time to get things done.

Or not… Even the shortening of days can be a positive. One of the bonuses of the autumn and the winter is the fact that we are not expected to do so much, we can socialise less, and reclaim our evenings and our nights if we want to.

The evenings can become sanctuaries of quiet and calm, and in turn can give us much-needed time to reflect and plan for the months and year ahead. I find this particularly important in a world where I race through each day barely clinging on to the coattails of my to-do list.

So perhaps September can have its upsides too as a time to reintroduce order and routine to our lives.

And did I mention Strictly is back on the telly? And The Great British Bake Off too?