By RORY MOORE
Tiger Media Network
Every year, the holiday season brings joy and excitement as many people spend time with their families, exchange gifts, sit down for family dinners, and go home during the holiday break. For others, the holidays can bring a sense of depression, gloom, and other low feelings. Students at Fort Hays State University weighed in to explain why this happens.
Some people cannot spend time with their families during the holidays due to work or academics.
“I grew up with my mother, sister, and little brother,” senior Davon Moret said. “For these last few years, I’ve been away from them. When the holidays come around, I get to thinking about them. Some years, I’m able to visit. Other times, I’m not.”
Moret suggested that people are depressed over the holidays due to missing out on activities and the time of year.
“People can see family, relationships, or even gifts as materialistic things and feel like they’re missing out,” he said. “It’s cold and it gets dark early. It would pinpoint those two things as some of the primary factors.”
For junior Jobi Roemer, the holiday gloom is caused by relatives growing up and being less committed to family get-togethers upon moving out.
“Not everyone can come to Christmas or Thanksgiving,” she said. “I know it from my siblings. Now that we’re older, far apart, and some are married, not all of us can make it, and I miss them.”
Roemer uses uplifting tunes and fond memories to cope with the seasonal sadness.
“Whenever I hear Christmas music, it makes me happy,” she said. “Thanksgiving makes me thankful for things and what I have.”
Others, like sophomore Alexander Queen, feel low due to the cooler weather.
“I’ve never been acclimated to the cold because I spent a lot of my time living in Arizona,” he said. “Now, I get a lot less sunshine, and I stay inside a lot more. I think that’s a big reason why I tend to deal with seasonal depression around wintertime, not getting outside and being cold.”
While Queen sympathizes with people’s feelings, he maintains the holiday spirit, particularly during Christmas.
“I really like Christmas,” he said. “I like a lot of the things that go on around [that time of the year]. When I have to work or miss out on something, it definitely can impact me a little bit, but for the most part, it doesn’t contribute to my seasonal depression.”
College students are often subjected to this feeling when preoccupied with academic obligations during the holiday break.
“Once you get past the freshman year, you can’t go to your family as often,” senior Ivor Contreras said. “The time that we get off is most likely going to be used more towards homework rather than celebration. It can also make you feel very isolated when everyone else is having festivities, and you have to stay home, do work, or actually work at a job as well.”
Contreras attributes that depression to the loneliness that is prevalent among Gen Z, especially with their lack of relationships.
“A lot of people in our generation have a problem with isolation,” she said. “That includes both romantic and friendly relationships. People find themselves isolated from others, and that can exacerbate their depression felt during the holidays because not only are you missing your family, but there also aren’t any substitute families you could use during that time.”
Fort Hays State University offers counseling services for students. Information about those services can be found here.