Some Thoughts on the Holidays

Halloween is a night that celebrates many different things. For the young – and the not so young – it’s a night to dress up and be whoever you want to be. It’s an excuse to eat lots of candy. It’s carving pumpkins. It’s TP’ing your neighbors’ houses. It’s haunted houses and scary movies. For many people this year, it was Voodoo Fest. It’s also one other monumental thing: the start of the holiday season.

The minute Halloween is over, the ghoulish décor of spider webs and skeletons is stripped off and the holiday preparations begin. Malls begin setting up their take-a-picture-with-Santa stations. Christmas trees are hauled out of storage. Festive lights and decorations pop up everywhere you go. Holiday music starts frequenting the radio. Everything’s different during the holidays, including us.

Studies show that many people change during the holiday season. Some people spring into a mood of constant jubilation. Some people are just slightly jollier than usual. Some people don’t change at all, and some people get SAD – seasonal affective disorder, that is.

Seasonal affective disorder, or the winter blues, is characterized by the depression people sink into during the winter months. SAD can be caused by things such as the shorter days, the colder temperatures, the stress of the upcoming holidays or, in the cases of students such as us, the stress of upcoming finals.

Maybe family gatherings make you want to pull out your hair. Maybe you’re low on funds for Christmas shopping and don’t know how you’re going to get presents for everyone on your list. Maybe the looming thought of finals on the horizon is giving you hives. Maybe the lessened length of sunlight makes you want to stay in bed all day. Maybe you’re graduating this December and you don’t know what you’re going to do with the rest of your life. Maybe the jolly smiles on the faces of all the holiday lovers of the world make you want to punch things.

You might just be stressed out and angry, but if you find that you’re less and less motivated to get out of bed and more and more motivated to eat an unnecessary amount of unhealthy food, you might have a case of SAD.

A lot of people get the winter blues and it’s often not that extreme. Only a small percentage of people fall into a full blown depression as a result of seasonal affective disorder, so odds are, you’re in the clear. But if you tend to be THAT person in every situation, the one that can’t ever catch a break, start getting your crap together now to save yourself 15lbs and a lot of grief later.

Oh, and take a hike. Literally. Sunlight has proven to be the best cure for the winter blues. Happy (start of the) holidays, Tulanians!

Judith Chatto is the brand new associate editor of the Hullabaloo!!!!! Reach her for things at jchatto@tulane.edu.