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The Herald and The Lantern

Wednesday. December 24,1980

Depression in the

by George F. Wilton, M.D. Each year, around Christmas time, there is a substantial increase in the number of people coming to psychiatrists on account of depression. Why is it that a season of joy and festivity should bring despair and depression to so many people? First there are the people living alone, people without close friends and relatives. All around them they see others buying cartloads of holiday food, liquor, gifts and decorations for Christmas gatherings and parties. They see young people coming home from college for the holidays, married couples coming to spend Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa. All the advertisments are filled with images and sounds of festivity, family gatherings, high spirits., IN THE MIDST OF ALL this, these lonely people face a bleak holiday by themselves, in their own room or apartment or house. It would take a person of superhuman emotional strength to withstand all this and not become dejected. Some do not have this strength and it is they, the vulnerable ones, who develop depressions t during the holidays. Among them we would find elderly people, forgotten and living alone; divorced or separated people tortured by memories of Christmas past; single people who never married and who feel their loneliness most keenly during holidays; young people removed from their families by military service or other circumstances. But holiday depressions do not happend only to those who are alone. They happen also to people who do have families. Their problem is not that they cannot make Christmas for themselves and their families, but that they cannot create as perfect a Christmas as they imagine Christmas should be, or as they imagine their childhood Christmases to have been. THERE ARE ALSO THE people who never have had happy Christmases in

Season of Joy

childhood and who have spun fantasies of the beautiful Christmas they themselves would create when they were grown and had their own families. And when things get in the way of their creating that ideal Christmas, they relive the pain and loneliness of childhood, and fall into a depression. Holiday-time depressions may be mild, or they may be very severe, in some cases even requiring hospitalization. Suicide attempts are also a possibility in the case of acute and intense depression. It is possible to reduce the likelihood of Christmas-time depression by taking certain measures. Families who are going to have a festive Christmas should reach out tq relatives and friends they know are going to be alone during the holidays and invite them to come and stay, or at least to be there for Christmas Eve and Christmas day. This can be extended even one step further to include lonely neighbors and acquaintances, senior citizens, and others who will have no place to go. This is not just a matter of being kind and generous; it may save someone from a severe depression or even from a suicide attempt. Individuals who know they are going to be alone and depressed should take the initiative to get in touch with friends and relatives and make it known that they enjoy being invited. Most of the time other people just are not aware ot the plight of lonely people and respond warmly when they are told. Organizations agencies should make special efforts to have parties and dinners to which lonely people can be invited. The antidote to holiday depression can, in many cases be a simple one—reachout to include, and reach out to be included. All of us here at The Carrier Foundation wish all of you a merry and mentallyhealthy Christmas.

Dr. George Wilson wrote this article for The Carrier Foundation, a psychiatric facility in Belle Mead. N.J.

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