# Spring's dark side: An upswing in suicides



## David Baxter PhD (May 9, 2008)

Spring's dark side: An upswing in suicides 
By Kim Painter, USA TODAY
May 4, 2008

The sun is shining. Flowers are blooming. It's May, and many of us feel great.
But the thoughts of some vulnerable people grow dark at this seemingly bright time of year. In fact, if there is a season for suicide, springtime is it.

"It's a new beginning, but some people don't feel that new beginning," says Jerry Reed, executive director of the Suicide Prevention Action Network.

Despite popular myths that suicides peak in the winter, particularly around the holidays, close observers have long noticed that suicides actually rise with the return of warmer, longer days, says Richard McCleary, a researcher at the University of California-Irvine.

Aristotle believed suicidal thoughts arose from overheated brains, McCleary says. More modern thinkers offer other biological or social explanations but still see the pattern ? at least in some places and among some people.

In one study of 28 countries, McCleary and colleagues found that, overall, suicide deaths were lowest in winter and highest in spring. They reached a peak in May in the Northern Hemisphere.

But the researchers found that the peak existed only in temperate climates ? places with distinct seasonal changes in weather. The link was strongest in agricultural societies and weakest in urban areas.

In a separate study of 357,393 suicide deaths in the USA from 1973 to 1985, McCleary found:


The fewest suicides occurred in December. The most occurred in March, April and May.
The spring peaks were mostly the results of suicides among males.
Men older than 80 were at the most pronounced increased springtime risk.
Boys under 16 showed a reversed pattern: They were most likely to kill themselves in the winter.
McCleary theorizes that vulnerable, isolated people with weak social ties ? such as many elderly men ? get left out of the spring upswing in social activity. "Maybe you visit your grandparents in winter," he says. "But you don't visit them in the spring and summer because you've got so many other things to do."

Psychiatrist Eric Caine of the University of Rochester Medical Center says most people who attempt suicide have long-standing mental health problems that play roles. But springtime changes may be a trigger for some, he says.

For example, he says, "we know there are some people with bipolar disorder who get very energized in the spring." Some of those still-distressed people may use their renewed vigor to plan and carry out a suicide, he says.

Still, suicide can happen in any month. "We lose 32,000 people a year, and those losses are spread throughout the year," Reed says.

In fact, in a report in April, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there was little month-to-month variation in nearly 9,000 suicide deaths reported in 16 (not necessarily representative) states in 2005. The numbers did, however, hint at a drop in winter and a rise in spring.

The bottom line, Reed says, is that some people are at a very low point and need the help of loved ones, friends and professionals right now ? no matter what the calendar says or how pleasant the weather seems.


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## suewatters1 (May 9, 2008)

I would think it would be worse in the winter where you wake up to darkness and finish work and it is dark. Spring time is sunnier and warmer so you don't stay couped up as much. But all year people get depress its what makes them go over the edge that is the deciding factor. A situation or an event or awful feelings that a person has thats been with them forever; that feels like life s*cks and it doesn't feel like it will get any better.


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## Kanadiana (May 9, 2008)

Spring is a time of new growth and life, and I wonder if this effects some like "I'm desperate for a new start, problems gone, and that will never happen, despair, deeper despair" ... like Spring tortures the soul that longs for freedom from suffering through starting new without the suffering, and brings home the feelings of "futility" like it will never happen and adds to feelings of "I can't take it anymore"? Spring brings a sense of defeat too strong to bear, for some?

These thoughts just ran through my head when I read this post .....


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## SoSo (May 10, 2008)

Very interesting read...I always get more depressed in spring and always thought it was just because I am allergic to grass and trees which of course come out in spring.  I can agree with you Kanadiana on 'longing for freedom from suffering through starting new without the suffering' :yikes:
Feisty:hide:


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## Kanadiana (May 10, 2008)

Hi Feisty4me, sorry to hear you have allergies that act up in Spring. So many people seem to have so many allergies these days.

Spring has always really excited and lifted me up, and still does, but it now also brings me face to face with my new physical limits that stop me from being able to do what I've always done in Spring, get out and about LOTS, walking, enjoying the views, getting physical outside and in, doing nesting or other organizing projects going at home, all sorts of stuff ... my impulses and desires to do it all are still really strong and that ends up really bringing me down sometimes. So much I'm not capable of anymore and I hate anything to come along and twig those natural drives in me that used to gives me absolutely tons of pleasure, are only are frustrated. Maybe this year I'll be more accepting and bouts of defeat will hit less and less often. I hope.

The new growth I see, the sun and the clouds, lots of people out and about and working in their yards etc ... I love it all. Maybe I love Spring so much because I'm an April kid, born in 1954 I turned 54 this year ... a special year I call my 54/54


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## Misha (May 10, 2008)

That's quite interesting.  I always assumed it would be higher in winter, but I guess people tend to mix up straight depression and seasonal affective disorder.  It sure explains how I'm feeling.


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## Kanadiana (May 10, 2008)

A lot of people start being out and about all happy and smiling and enjoying in Spring after the winter and I think that seeing all that happiness all over the place is very hard to see when someone is suffering depression. All that happiness and enjoyment of others kinda seems to magnify or exagerate feelings of depression and I could see that sliding someone into a deeper despair. I know thats how its worked for me when I've been struggling with deep depression. "I wanna be that happy right now too and I think I will never get there and I can't cope with this anymore then"  ) sorta thing. Ouch. 

Seeing all that happiness in others can seem kind of toxic to depression I think. I say that because I've felt like that before


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