Who wants to talk about depression, much less suicide, during the holidays? The Food and Drug Administration, for one. Last week, twelve days before Christmas, the FDA held hearings on the suicide risk posed by antidepressants. The hearings took place in the ballroom of a hotel festooned with cheery holiday decorations. Were they out of place, ill-timed?
Not for Jayne Richner who testified at the hearings. She won’t get to spend this Christmas with her 22 year-old son who hanged himself four months ago after he stopped taking the antidepressant Celexa.
Depression is also a timely discussion for the one million Americans who suffer from the “holiday blues,” a temporary strain of depression resulting from factors including stress, overspending, overdrinking and reminders of loss.
Most of those who get the “holiday blues,” contrary to the popular misconception that suicide rates go up during Christmas and New Years, do not become suicidal, just as most people who take antidepressants do not take their own lives.
My mother, however, has tried to kill herself twice. Both attempts occurred between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The second attempt happened last weekend.
While suicide and attempted suicide cases like Richner’s son and my mother are rare exceptions among the outcomes of depression, the illness underlying them is a preventable national health epidemic.
Year round, 34 million Americans are chronically depressed. A 2005 report by Harvard University found that the United States leads the world in rates of mental illness and has one of the lowest rates of treatment. Depression is the leading cause of disability and costs more in lost productivity than any health problem but heart disease.
Most Americans don’t seek help for their depression. Of those who do, only a small percentage receive appropriate, effective treatment.
The “holiday blues” are temporary. But the factors that trigger it are tied to stressors that are with us year round, suggesting that depression in American may be on the rise.
Gift-buying may show up on high interest credit card bills, making us feel financially insecure or sinking us further into debt. Many of us will be in airports where frustrating security measures raise to the surface the lurking question: Are we any safer from terrorism today than we were before 9/11?
If we’re driving to see our families, the cost of filling our tank indicates that oil is outpacing supply and it’s unlikely that gas is going to become any more affordable. Neither is a solution to the global energy crisis at hand.
The high national divorce rate makes it difficult for many of us to negotiate who spends which holiday with whom, a symptom of family fragmentation that can be agonizing year round.
Many families displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita will not be able to go home for the holidays, a reminder that government agencies failed to protect and provide for our citizenry while more category five hurricanes are predicted.
140,000 American troops won’t be spending Christmas with their families because they’re in Iraq, risking their lives for a cause in which most Americans no longer believe.
Who knows if this is a manifestation of any kind of national emotional instability or depression, but the violent skirmishes that erupted this year in several shopping malls the day after Thanksgiving—a few had to be broken up by police—are not reassuring.
When we come together for the holidays, we remember how precious our loved ones are to us; how blessed we are to have them in our lives and how much we want them happy and healthy, physically, mentally and emotionally.
The bottom line is that we need a national commitment to preventing and curing depression. We must invigorate investment in research and safe, effective treatments. We must break the silence surrounding depression.
There’s no need to begin this discussion over the holiday dinner table—that would be a little depressing.
But a nationwide commitment to helping people who have depression and addressing the illness as a national health epidemic should be included among our New Year’s resolutions.
Robin Templeton is a writer and director of the national non-profit organization Single Young Mothers Initiative which addresses the economic, social and emotional challenges facing young women. She has worked for years with youth and women whose families struggle with mental health issues in educational and non-profit settings. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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