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May most dangerous month for people with depression

8 Comments

“April is the cruelest month,” said T.S. Eliot in "The Wasteland." Not so, says Spa! (April 26). It’s May. May, beautiful May: sunshine, birdsong, flowers, soft breezes – what’s cruel about May? Its very beauty, if you’re depressed. If you’re not, it poses other challenges. Watch out for May above all months, Spa! warns.

April in Japan is the month of changes: new school year, new fiscal year, new job, new assignments within old job – and of course: new season, new weather, new clothes, new outlook on life. April rings all this in. By May the dust has settled. Now come the painful adjustments, the gritty coping.

“Mr Iida” is 44 and works for a medical equipment manufacturer. Last spring he was transferred to a department headed by a man three years his junior. That in itself wouldn’t have been so bad, but this new boss of his was hyper-conscious of the age difference and, by way of compensation, assumed an obnoxiously authoritarian air. Iida’s stress levels rose. To avoid the boss whenever possible, he began skipping office drinking parties – which, he soon found, left him out of the loop during working hours as well. The tension caused headaches, nausea. One day he collapsed at his desk. At the hospital he was diagnosed with depression.

He’s back at work now after a leave of absence, but things aren’t going well, and the May sunshine only mocks his low spirits. Perhaps next April will see him transferred to a more congenial department, and next May will see him happier.

An April promotion should make for a cheerful May. Not always, Spa! finds. “Mr Oyama,” 41, got one. He’s in finance. His old boss was a mercurial martinet; now Oyama is the boss. His prayers are answered, you naturally think – wrongly. The martinet’s barking helped Oyama focus; he didn’t enjoy it, it brought out the best in him; he did good work. Now he delegates and finds himself with little to do all day long. He dozes at his desk and can’t sleep nights. He too was ultimately diagnosed with depression and is on medication.

Raising children is one of life’s great joys, except when it’s one of life’s great chagrins, which it often is, as “Mr Takahashi,” 37-year-old father of two, is learning lately, courtesy of his older child, newly admitted to first grade, and his two-year-old, newly placed in daycare. An IT professional, Takahashi works flexible hours; his wife doesn’t. So guess who ferries the kids to and from school? Well, he’s a good sport about it, but it gets a bit rugged in the late afternoon when he’s alone with the kids for two hours before his wife gets home from her job. The two-year-old is going through the “terrible twos,” crying and throwing things for no reason, and when dad attends to him, the older child feels deprived of his fair share of paternal attention, and doesn’t take it lying down. Then mom finally shows up, and dad must get back to the work which has been piling up all the while.

“We’re both exhausted all the time,” he says. “We can’t even talk to each other – every word seems to spark a fight.” Life seems over before it’s fairly begun.

To make matters worse – as if they’re not bad enough! – we are now approaching the peak of allergy season for Japan’s 30 million sufferers. Try telling them that May is the most beautiful month in the calendar.

© Japan Today

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

8 Comments
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What a superficial and ignorant interpretation of depression. Depression is a long-term imbalance of neurotransmitters. It needs long-term strategies for management, like counseling, cognitive therapy, or medication.

It's not a mood brought about by being in a tough spot in life or by the weather being nice for a month. These things might trigger an episode in an already depressed person, but they don't make a person depressed. If you have not for many years experienced symptoms of depression, then having a rough time with new life circumstances didn't make you depressed, you just have problems and you need to learn how to deal with them.

14 ( +18 / -4 )

@katsu78 - this blog post is probably not about actual clinical depression but instead ごがつびょう(五月病) ...

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Gogatsubyou always used to set in with the realisation after Golden Week ended that there were no more public holidays until late July. A holiday or two in June would help, I think.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Depression is tricky beast and hard to define. I think the following quote sums it up nicely:

“The signs of depression are many, because this soul-destroying illness affects each person differently, and in its degree of severity. This illness can develop quickly or gradually, and be brought on by life events and/or changes in body chemistry. It can strike anyone, and is curable in very many cases.”

If you just have problems, please don’t try to just deal with them on your own. That can often have the opposite effect, especially if don’t manage to effectively deal with the problem and it spirals out of control.

Try talking over your worries with a person who will listen sympathetically. If you feel it’s a bit more serious than that, there are some fantastic counselors out there who can help and guide you.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Serotonin, Dopamine, GABA, and Norepinephrine are the four major neurotransmitters that regulate mood. Imbalances with these neurotransmitters cause disrupted communication between the brain and body. This can have serious effects to ones health both physically and mentally such as depression, anxiety and other mood disorders. Therefore your brain needs the proper nutrients everyday in order to manufacture proper levels of the neurotransmitters that regulate mood. In other words besides the psychological issues or biochemical imbalances, and triggers such as major stress or trauma, nutritional imbalances can make you prone to depression such as a lack of essential fats and high homocysteine. Also blood sugar balance and levels of the nutrients chromium and Vitamin D can affect you.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Not sure if it's depression or stress but today only one leader showed up for work. We always start working at 8am and have a lunch break at 11am. We did just that today. At 11:45, we started working, at past 12, the leader came ranting in Spanish of which I couldn't understand. As soon as he left, I asked the other Peruvian who speaks a little Japanese and she told me that we were being sent home. We usually end our Saturday job at 4pm. I just think if the leader is stressed out or depressed in a way, then he ought to be packing his things and go back to his home country. Why would he compromise our need to work when we don't just loiter around and stretch time!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Yes, the month of 5月 is one of despair and forlornness. The sun is shining, the birds are singing and the young inhabitants of the fairer sex begin to wear miniskirts and loose tops. Oh the horror...

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

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