I always look forward to the holidays each year. When Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New Year’s approach life gets exciting. Coming off of the warm weather and fun summers. We then get to celebrate good times with family, go shopping, and many fun activities appear. But what happens in the weeks after? To me this is one of the most depressing times of the year. The holidays that you look forward to are so far away. You have to get through spring to get to summer. It is hard to get through these months. To me January and February are the most depressing times of the year.

A list of New Years Resolutions
Photo from: 123Dentist

One factor that contributes to this opinion is the weather. Yes, sometimes it snows which is fun for a day, but the weather overall is gloomy and dark. Dr. Wendy Walsh said that, “Lack of light causes depressive symptoms" There was a time period this past January where we went two weeks without an ounce of sunlight. Some days, it is cloudy and rainy, and other days, it is cloudy and hot. It is a weird time with the weather. It is hard to go outside and do things when you don’t know if it will be pouring down rain or ice cold outside. In addition, it is proven that the sun can help mental health. Rachal Nall, who has worked in the medical field since 2004 said, that the sun being out can help increase your serotonin. Serotonin will help boost your mood and is chemically linked to feeling good and living longer.

Another reason that January and February is associated with sadness is most students come back to school after a long and fun break. The main thing they have to look forward to here is spring break then summer but that is a while away. You get less sleep because now you have to wake up early again after being able to sleep in all day. But this is just students. What about all of the people that are not in school anymore. Well January is the time period where the Christmas credit card bill comes in. According to LendingTree, who surveyed over two-thousand consumers in the U.S found that the average Americans rack up an average of $1,200 to $1,300 of debt during the holidays. This is not good because people have to start scrambling for money. Sharon Epperson, CNBC’S senior financial correspondent said, "When you have $1,300 in debt, it could take 5 years, paying over 600 dollars in interest." Adults have to make a hard decision, which would be either to cut back on Christmas and let your kids down or get a lot of gifts and struggle with money. This can be very stressful. People also have New Year’s resolution that people are set to fail. Walsh said, “By the time you are into the third week of January, you are really not feeling great. We are now talking about three weeks from New Year’s resolutions. That's about the time when most people have failed.”

This year I have noticed my mood has changed a lot during this time period, more than other years at least. I found myself not going outside as much and not wanting to do activities. This could weigh heavier on me this year being my senior year and being done with sports. But it is not just me who has struggled with mood changes during this time of the year. Jared Merk a student at Archbishop Moeller High School says, “I do the same thing every day, and it gets boring.” He also said that there are not a lot of exciting things going on and it is hard to find things to do.

A child who is showing signs of depression
Photo from: ffpeds.com

Even though January and February are widely known as the most depressing months the suicide rates are not the highest. According to a Medical Editor John P. Cunha, May and June are proven to have the most suicides out of any other months. This is because during the months like January and February a lot of people are depressed because of the weather and other reasons, but the people that suffer from depression all year long feel comfortable because they see that a lot of other people are feeling depressed as well. But when the weather starts to get better, they start to feel alone and continue to feel depressed as others get happier. Not only this but as the weather gets better and people get out of the house people with social anxieties struggle to be around people. As a result of this, months like May and June have the highest suicide rates.

Either way we can see through many sources that the months of January and February are the most depressing times of the year. As we may recognize this now, we should call to make a change. By finding new activities to choose and stepping out from our own constraints and trying something new. Not only this but that we support and treat everyone with kindness especially during these months because a lot of people could be going through things like depression and that we might not know of.

January and February: The Most Depressing Months of the Year