How sad is Christmas?

[Boris B]

In the past I used to believe the legend that suicide rates used to increase during the winter holidays. It made perfect sense to me - Christmas is depressing, dark days are depressing, and weather too cold to go out in are depressing, so why shouldn't there be a seasonal spike in the suicide rate? (Naturally the last two points apply only to areas pretty far North.) Then I learned that I was completely wrong and there is no such spike (see
http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/suicide.htm
and
http://www.stats.org/spotlight/holiday.html ).

My next thought was Okay, so there is no deep-winter increase in the suicide rate. Why is this the case, given that Christmas is so depressing? Naturally it didn't take me long to realize that this is a big assumption. Just because most people I know hate Christmas, and most strangers I encounter during the season have those dull, overstressed, exasperated faces, doesn't mean that a statistically large number of people are actually depressed during the season.

Furthermore, there is a lot of confirmation bias in the way I see things. When someone says "Merry Christmas" in that robotically cheeful, forced sort of way I just intepret it as evidence that they're not really happy; when someone puts their face in their hands and says "I just can't wait until it is over" in a tone of exhausted desperation, I think they are being sincere. This wouldn't be objectively valid evidence even if I had a large, random sample.

Finally, there is a problem with the word "depression". I gather that it really shouldn't be applied to short-term sadness with an external source. With this in mind it appears that even if most people get sad because of Christmas, it has less the character of a "depression epidemic" and more the character of a shared emotional trauma like a natural disaster or war.

I have a Google hit on the subject. From http://www.journeyofhearts.org/jofh/grief/risk Whether or not there is an increased incidence of suicide, we know there is an increased incidence of depression, mental health visits and the blues, both during the holiday and up to three weeks after the holidays.
Other than this, though, I can't really figure out the emotional impact of the season on the public at large. Any thoughts?

[Boris B]

Okay, here's another cite but it doesn't provide any more backing documents than Journey of Hearts: http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/current/features/1994/121594/stress.html Experts in the field of mental health are split on whether the phenomenon of holiday depression really exists ... [it] is clear, however, is that levels of stress increase during the holiday season as people tend to overextend themselves....

[Ice Wolf]

Speaking from inside a moderate depression sparked off by the season at the moment -- I don't think Christmas makes folk any more depressed than they already are inclined to be. But Christmas does highlight the lonliness, fear, inner pain felt by people such as myself. Everyone is supposed to be happy during the festive season -- if you're not happy, then you're even more excluded from life's normality than you already are.

Maybe we're just a bit different down here in the Southern Hemisphere where all this comes in the midst of our summer. I haven't heard of increased rates of depressive desperate acts down here -- just the usual domestic violence, alcohol abuse, that sort of thing.

[Boris B]

Statistically speaking, Ice Wolf, there should be an increase in the suicide rate in your neck of the woods simply because it is late spring / early summer. That doesn't mean it is Christmas causing it, of course. It would be interesting to make a statistically rigorous comparison of late-spring suicide spikes in comparable northern and southern countries. (Which countries are "comparable", I don't know.) If NZ and Australia had smaller spikes than ... uhh ... Canada and Norway? ... it might indicate Christmas was actually helpful.

I agree with the rest of what you said, my Brother in (Counter)Seasonal Unhappiness. (Begging pardon if you are a she-wolf.)

[kniz]

At my age, birthdays are far more depressing than Christmas. :(

[Ice Wolf]

Originally posted by Boris B
I agree with the rest of what you said, my Brother in (Counter)Seasonal Unhappiness. (Begging pardon if you are a she-wolf.)

Yeah, I'm a she-wolf, but you're definitely excused. :)

I agree with you. Christmas, in itself, doesn't really have that much more effect than the season it happens in, or close enough.

I'm an ol' misery guts, anyway, so that's just me. :)

[CarnalK]

"we know there is an increased incidence of depression, mental health visits and the blues, both during the holiday and up to three weeks after the holidays. "

We should ask if this increase of incidents occurs only in those who actually celebrate Christmas(ie does the jewish demographic also experience this increase).

Heck maybe it's New Years Eve's fault. I know I failed all my resolutions last year. :)

[Jake]

kniz, I can dig it. My birthday is next Tuesday. 62. Sigh.

Oh well, I guess it beats the alternative. ;)

[BobT]

I can only provide anecdotal evidence here (namely me!), but I think the holiday depression idea stems a lot from the feeling that people get when it seems that everyone around them is happy and for some reason (in my case, recent deaths in my family) you aren't. So, your depression seems to be in sharper relief.

But I also felt depressed around my birthday, but also for the same reasons (missing the people who had passed away.)

Another trigger for depression may be some change from past holiday rituals that you used to find enjoyable. Again that is another cause of my depression (e.g. Christmas by yourself is not as much fun as Christmas with your family as it used to be)

The concern is whether the depression is long term (and requires care) or short term (as mine was).

[TheLadyLion]

As a mental health professional, I can verify that many people become more depressed this time of year. Of course, the majority of those are already depressed, and it just intensifies at the end of the year. There are many reasons for this. The holidays are typically a time for family and loved ones. Many of my clients who become more depressed have lost relationships (death, divorce, breakup, kids leaving home) within the year and are grieving the loss. People who see the holidays as a time to buy, buy, BUY, and who have little $$$ to do so get down. Because the Christmas holiday is a time of "great cheer," depressed people are seldom up to the task of it all, and they often tell me they feel like they are letting other people down by not being cheerful. Some people build up to the holidays, only to feel let down after they are over with. Finally, some people are plagued by seasonal affective disorder (although it isn't so common out here in AZ), in which it is believed that less and less light availability during winter months causes clinical depression.

Does this help?

[Boris B]

Yes, all the answers help. I was kind of hoping someone would say, "Oh yes, I read in this well-documented book that the holidays increase depression by X% above and beyond the rates of seasonal affective disorder, and that Y% of this is caused by unmet familial expectations, Z% is caused by overstimulation and shocks to sleep patterns, and A% is caused by...." which is of course not a particularly realistic expectation. How someone would measure this precisely is beyond me, but I can dream, can't I?
:)