Status: False.
Origins: I'd believed
this one for the longest time. It fit what I already believed, that the joy others experience during the holidays drives home the hopelessness of the situation to someone who is alone in the world. All that Christmas cheer, in other words, pushes those teetering on the edge over the side as they see too clearly what others have and, by contrast, what they do not have.
(A further myth along this line has it that more mothers commit suicide on Mother's Day than on any other day of the year. This again fits the notion that the reality of a neglected parent's life is driven home to her on the one day when she should be receiving some recognition for all the love and care she's lavished on her children.)
And yet it's not that way at all:
Suicide is not linked to holidays, at least not in Minnesota's Olmsted County, where the Mayo Clinic is located, according to Mayo researchers.
A study of all reported suicides in Olmsted County during a 35-year period did not find an excess number of suicides just before, during or after Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's or the Fourth of July holidays.
Nor did researchers find a higher suicide rate on birthdays, or three days before or after birthdays.
However, their work, concluded in 1985, did affirm other studies showing that suicides are most numerous early in the week and least common on weekends. The authors speculate: "Fewer suicides than expected may occur on weekends and major holidays because it may be easier to repress troublesome thoughts during these times of greater social interaction."1
http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/suicide.asp
Origins: I'd believed
this one for the longest time. It fit what I already believed, that the joy others experience during the holidays drives home the hopelessness of the situation to someone who is alone in the world. All that Christmas cheer, in other words, pushes those teetering on the edge over the side as they see too clearly what others have and, by contrast, what they do not have.
(A further myth along this line has it that more mothers commit suicide on Mother's Day than on any other day of the year. This again fits the notion that the reality of a neglected parent's life is driven home to her on the one day when she should be receiving some recognition for all the love and care she's lavished on her children.)
And yet it's not that way at all:
Suicide is not linked to holidays, at least not in Minnesota's Olmsted County, where the Mayo Clinic is located, according to Mayo researchers.
A study of all reported suicides in Olmsted County during a 35-year period did not find an excess number of suicides just before, during or after Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's or the Fourth of July holidays.
Nor did researchers find a higher suicide rate on birthdays, or three days before or after birthdays.
However, their work, concluded in 1985, did affirm other studies showing that suicides are most numerous early in the week and least common on weekends. The authors speculate: "Fewer suicides than expected may occur on weekends and major holidays because it may be easier to repress troublesome thoughts during these times of greater social interaction."1
http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/suicide.asp
