n North America, the yuletide season is traditionally an exciting time filled with joy, happiness, merriment, celebration, and generosity. You can see it everywhere you turn. You see it in decorated neighborhoods clothed with Christmas lights, tinsel, and evergreens. You can see it in the faces of children, who tingle with anticipation as they wait to discover what gifts will be waiting for them under the Christmas tree. You can see it in the parties and family gatherings, in the wonderful times of fellowship.

The holiday season is also time for thanking God for the gift of His Son and to share with those less fortunate than ourselves. It’s a time when homeless shelters and nursing homes are overflowing with volunteers who shower those in need with food and gifts.

Dark Cloud
Amid the gaiety and mirth of this special season there’s another side to the holiday season that’s not often discussed. While most of us look forward to the parties and family gatherings, many others actually dread the holidays because the season escalates depression and grief.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, depression affects more than 17 million Americans each year. Fewer than half of the people suffering from depression seek treatment. One out of every five adults may experience depression at some point during their life. Twice as many women as men experience depression.¹

Research shows that some cases of seasonal depression, called seasonal affective disorder, may actually result from the decreased number of sunlight hours during the day.²

For many people the routine rigors of holiday preparation, such as cooking, shopping, traveling, decorating, and entertaining, bring on additional stress and anxiety, and this stress can initiate clinical depression.

Parents who have adult children often suffer when they are unable to visit during the holidays. Divorcées and separated spouses may incur a deep sense of despondency on holidays.

Such emotions are also prevalent for students and expatriate workers who are away from their homes and families.

 The stress of running a single-parent family is often compounded with the holidays, especially if there are past traumatic experiences connected to those holidays.

Perhaps one of the most profound instances of holiday anxiety comes with the death of a spouse, parent, or child. For widows or widowers, the holidays often trigger severe loneliness and grief.

Recent studies have shown that individual and community grief can be powerful forces that must be treated. A British study concluded that the 1997 death of Diana, Princess of Wales, spawned widespread suicides and incidents of deliberate self-harm. The report, published in The British Journal of Psychiatry, states that suicides increased by more than 17 percent the month following Diana’s funeral. “This was particularly marked in females (33.7 percent), especially those aged 25-44 years (45.1 percent).”³

The study also revealed that cases of deliberate self-harm increased by more than 44 percent, with a 65 percent increase for females. Researchers believe that incidences occurred because Diana’s death amplified personal losses or exacerbated existing distress.⁴

Whisper a Prayer
As you prepare for your yuletide festivities I trust that you’ll have a joyous time of fellowship. But as you prepare, remember those around who may be depressed or in distress. It may be a single mother on your job or at church. It may be a student away from home. Whisper a prayer for them. Invite someone to your home. You’ll never know how important that one small act of kindness might be.

As Christ once said, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matt. 25:40).

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¹ www.fbhs.org/Blues, News Release, “Holiday Blues Vs. Depression,” Friends Hospital, Dec. 1, 1999.
² www.nmha.org/infoctr/factsheets/103.cfm, National Mental Health Association, Other Mental Illnesses, 1998.
³ Effect of death of Diana, Princess of Wales on suicide and deliberate self-harm, The British Journal of Psychiatry, November 2000.
⁴ Ibid.

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Carlos Medley is Adventist Review news and online editor.