agsandrew Getty Images/iStockphoto
The month of May is spring’s overture when nature’s rebirth manifests in color, youth and vigor. Flowers reach full bloom. Trees leaf out. The soil, revitalized by winter’s slumber, pushes shoots of green toward the Sun. Our fellow animals conduct their daily tasks with renewed vigor, while the birds sing their lilting melodies. This riot of sensory delights is the coming out party for new life. And it heralds the peak season for suicides.
Contrary to conventional wisdom suggesting the dark, cold winter pushes many to a new emotional low, more people take their lives in spring than any other season, and May is often the worst month in this regard. This paradoxical phenomenon is global. Spring in the southern hemisphere exhibits the same troubling trend. In the United States and many other northern regions, December, when daylight tanks, usually records the fewest suicides, and January, in turn, often tallies more deaths overall than any other month of the year. But suicides do not follow suit. What gives? Theories abound, but no definitive, evidence-based answer has emerged.
Some neuroscientists propose that seasonal fluctuations in brain chemistry are to blame. Increased exposure to sunlight activates the release of more serotonin, a feel-good neurochemical that those with Seasonal Affective Disorder strive to ramp up during winter by using light boxes exuding solar rays. Folks who suffer suicidal thoughts through the winter may be “activated” by this bump in serotonin, becoming more aggressive and impulsive. This, in turn, may spur them to act on their self-destructive ruminations rather than just endure them. The strongest evidence supporting this theory comes from a Canadian study showing that suicides occurring during the spring are more violent and, therefore, lethal than those attempted in the winter. At least by correlation, this bolsters the link between increased serotonin and greater aggression; in this instance, aggression toward one’s self.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
Contrast Effect
Alternatively, viewing the spring surge in suicides through a psychological lens offers another explanation, albeit, like the neurochemical hypothesis, an unproven one. A former client I’ll call Bill (not his real name) lent anecdotal credence to what some researchers call the “contrast effect” hypothesis. A white male in his forties beset by family, financial and health problems, he suffered through the winter months with nagging “What’s the use?” thoughts but kept them from translating into action. When he showed up at my door in April, his suicidal ideations were morphing into impulses, ones he found increasingly tough to keep at bay.
“I feel dead inside, but during this past winter, it didn’t feel as hopeless, if that makes any sense,” he struggled to explain. The cloak of winter, which conveys a dead-like or dormant ambience to many of us, was in sync with his state of mind. His inner world and the external one seemed in harmony, albeit in a depressing way.
“With spring, everything outside is coming back to life. But inside, I still feel that deadness, that hopelessness,” he continued.
The contrast between Bill’s internal state mind and the external realm of spring’s rebirth made his emotional condition seem all the worse. The power of nature’s seasonal rhythms to influence our mindsets and moods is too often overlooked. Mesmerized as many of us are by the techno-mechanical environments we inhabit, we forget that we are embedded in the natural world and subject to its powerful influences. As spring approaches, we too are genetically programmed to “come to life” and experience new beginnings and the hopes they engender. For Bill, and those like him, this deep knowing creates a subconscious expectation that, with spring, the dark clouds of depression and angst will dissipate. When that fails to occur and the inevitable disappointment sets in, this only intensifies their distress, too often tipping them over the edge toward self-destruction.
So, which hypothesis about causation is correct? We don’t know. Perhaps both, in some fashion. Regardless, if you know a loved one or friend who seemed despondent and downcast during the winter, don’t assume that spring’s light and warmth will provide a healing elixir. Ironically and sadly, it could prove the opposite.
Getting Help: If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts or impulses, or know a friend or loved one who might be, there is immediate help available. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, text the Crisis Text Line at 741741, or visit: suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
