Just having a break from work is not enough suggests new research, it is activities in the open air which have the strongest restorative effects on our mental states.

Everyone gets down sometimes - it's only natural. It would be more unusual never to be depressed. The idea that depression is an on-off condition with a purely chemical foundation is a myth no psychologist would endorse. The causes of depression can be many and widespread. But one cause many of us have to cope with is work.

One of the main weapons against stress building up from work is going on vacation. Holidays are a firmly established way of allowing the mind and body to recuperate. In new research, however, published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, Hartig, Catalano and Ong (2007) find that all holidays are not created equal.

Getting out in the open

The lead author of this paper, Terry Hartig, lives and works in Sweden, a country well known for its long, dark winters. As such, the Swedes know the importance of getting out in the sunshine, when it finally arrives. There is even a law requiring employers to provide four consecutive weeks of holiday in the summer. And it's actually this law that is crucial to Hartig et al's findings.

Hartig and colleagues suggest that being stuck indoors on vacation can limit mental recuperation. On the other hand, when able to roam outdoors, we can exert ourselves at a favourite sport or simply linger in the park. Psychologically, beautiful scenery can distract us from our troubles, help us forget our normal stressful environments and reconnect us to nature.

This is a nice theory that is intuitively attractive and plausible. The problem is how to test it scientifically.

Anti-depressant prescriptions and the weather

Hartig et al. decided to use the number of SSRI anti-depressants prescribed between 1991 and 1998 as a proxy for the general level of depression in the population of Sweden. They then looked for correlations between the weather and the amount of anti-depressants prescribed, which they duly found.

Wait, though, there's a problem with this. Perhaps people are simply happier when the weather is warmer? It would then follow there would be an association between anti-depressant prescriptions and temperature.

Hartig et al. anticipated this problem. They remove the variation in anti-depressant prescriptions associated with the general change in monthly mean temperature from the equation. Then they get a really interesting finding. Now there's only a correlation between temperature and anti-depressant medications in one month: July. There's no similar effect even for the adjacent months of June or August.

How can that be explained? Why would the relationship only occur in July?

Why July is unusual

Here is the authors' reasoning. In Sweden people take most of their holiday in July at the centre of the period stipulated by law (from 1 June to 31 August). A survey found it is over 90%. This means that during July they have the highest likelihood of being free to enjoy outdoor pursuits. On average, the rest of the year they will be working, so even if the weather is unseasonably warm in May, for example, they won't be able to take advantage of it.

The reasoning goes, then, that if the weather is bad in July people are stuck indoors. This means they are unable to fully recuperate mentally before returning to work. Alternately, if the weather is good in July people are, on average, mentally rested and have less need for medication.

Remember that this explanation relies on averaging out many people's behaviour across nine years. Obviously not everyone requires anti-depressants to get through a spell of bad weather. Similarly some people require them whatever the weather. But think about it in terms of the people who are slipping across the boundary of requiring/asking for medication. Then the authors' explanation makes sense.

Happiness is...

I know this study falls into the category of telling us something we already know. But it does so in rather an ingenious way that takes advantage of Swedish vacation patterns. Also, we can't be reminded often enough that we should take every opportunity to get out in the open air.

Truly, happiness is looking out across fresh fields, gazing at a distant tree, feeling the sun on your back and the wind brushing your skin.

最新研究表明仅仅在工作中间小憩一下是远远不够的，对回复我们精神状态最有效的办法就是户外活动。

每个人都有低落的时候-这很正常。如果有人从不郁闷那才是反常的。没有任何心理学家会赞同抑郁纯粹是由一种不明化学物质引起的。导致抑郁症的原因可能有很多种并且相当广泛，但其中之一我们不得不应对的就是工作。

我们对付工作压力的利器之一就是去度假。度假毫无疑问是一个让身心都放松的方式。然而新的刊登在环境心理学Hartig, Catalano 和 Ong (2007)杂志的研究发现并不是所有假期都有同样的效果。

去户外

这份论文的主要作者Terry Hartig工作且生活在瑞典，一个因其漫长昏暗的冬天而闻名的国家。因此，瑞典人知道外出享受阳光的重要性，尤其当它到来时。瑞典甚至颁布一项法律要求雇主在夏天提供连续四个星期的假日。而正是这项法律在Hartig的发现中至关重要。

Hartig和同事提出假日闷在屋里可能限制精神上的恢复。另一方面，当我们在户外畅游时，我们可以做喜欢的运动或者在公园里漫步。从心理学角度来看，美丽的景色可以减轻我们的烦恼，帮助我们忘记平时有压力的环境而融入大自然。

这个理论很有吸引力而且似乎是可信的。问题是我们怎样科学地检验它。

抗抑郁处方和天气

Hartig和同事们预先考虑到了这个问题。他们将开抗抑郁处方的数量跟每个月的温度变化对比。然后他们得到了一个有趣的结果。只有一个月份的平均温度与抗抑郁药有负相关联系：七月。甚至临近的六月或八月都没有类似的联系。

怎么解释呢？为什么只跟七月有关？

为什么七月如此不同

这里是作者的推断。在瑞典人们大部分的假期都在七月这一法律规定假日的中间部分（从6月1日到8月31）。一份调查显示（在七月休假的人）超过90%。这意味着在七月他们进行户外活动的可能性最高。总体看来，一年的其他时间他们都会在工作。例如即使是在天气异常炎热的五月人们也不能因此获益（放假）。

推理继续，那么如果七月天气很差而人们被迫呆在家里，这意味着他们精神上不能很好的恢复然后去工作。换句话说，如果七月天气好，人们心情回复的好就不怎么需要吃药了。

记住这个解释是根据9年来很多人的行为推断出来的。通常不是每个人都需要抗抑郁药来抵御坏天气的影响的。而一些人无论天气怎么样都需要抗抑郁药物。但考虑到在这个时期那些人变得倾向于服用药物，作者的解释还是有道理的。

幸福是...

我知道这项研究成了那类告诉我们一些我们已经知道的事实的那种类型。但它的确以某种巧妙的方式引用了瑞典假期模型。此外，那些提醒我们抓住每一个机会去户外的建议怎么也不嫌多。

说真的，幸福就在穿过一片生机勃勃的田野、凝望远处的树、感受喷洒在后背的阳光和轻抚过你肌肤的微风之中。
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