It is officially December, and I couldn't be more excited for the holiday season. I was talking to my mother in the car, (coming home from Christmas shopping of course!), when we got to discussing a slightly morbid topic. I have heard many times before that suicide rates peak because of the holiday season. This never really made sense to me, because Christmas, winter, and the holidays just make me so cheerful and happy.
Yes the holidays bring certain frustrations, but I still never understood this statistic. So, I did some research, and I found some conclusive evidence that denies the fact that suicide rates increase around Christmas! The most clear and decisive piece of evidence I found was this article I found from the Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center Health Library. It says that suicide rates are linked to the holidays by the media, and actually peak in the spring and slightly decrease in the winter!
Finally, there is light at the end of the tunnel! This renewed my strong belief that Christmas is a worldwide happy time of the year! :D The article did say, however, that something called "seasonal affective disorder" is a type of depression linked to winter. But this is related to the dark, cold, winter days, and the not the holidays themselves!
Another article, which was a source of information for the Darnall Medical Center's library, was written in the New York Times on December 27, 2005. It states that a very large study conducted by the Archives of General Psychiatry, found that psychiatric visits decreased in the weeks before Christmas and then rose afterwards. A study conducted by the Mayo Clinic, that looked extensively at a 35-year period, found there was no relationship between the holidays and suicides!
So, for now, my mind is at peace, and is no longer cluttered with the morbid thoughts of depressed people during what should be the happiest time of year!
And check out this video - the media is catching on to the reality of these studies as well! Hopefully the depressing myth of holiday suicides will be extinguished forever! The video was aired in December of 2007 on CNN Morning News.
1 comment:
I found this interesting. Although I'm no expert and haven't done any research myself, my guess is that the people who commit suicide around christmas are those that are reminded about what the holiday is supposed to mean, not only religion but also about how the holiday has grown so that it is prominently featured as a family holiday, much like thanksgiving. While normal people may be confused as to why this would cause people to commit suicide, I'm thinking of those people with unhappy families, those whose parents are going through a divorce, or are going through divorces themselves, those who have experienced the death of loved ones recently, and other tragedies. To those people, it's the happiness of the season that may seem morbid, as it seems as the whole world is rejoicing right when you feel the worst. Although I'm certainly not depressed myself(lol...), I thought of sympathizing with my hypothetical set of people
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