The New Allergen: Happiness?

Written by craig

Over the course of over three decades, I've run accross a veritable plethora of potential triggers for suicide, but this is one of the stranger ones even for me. 

We have research that shows suicide tends to peak in the spring but we are never quite sure just why. I mean, the bit about jilted young lovers can only account for so much.

However, I ran across an article that made a good point for another factor, one that should have been quite obvious. Here's the money quote:

The rates of depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbance (suicide risk factors) are greater in patients with allergic rhinitis than in the general population. The rate of allergy is also greater in patients with depression. Preliminary data suggest that patients with a history of allergy may have an increased rate of suicide.

This is the opening line from a study by Postolache et. al. entitled. "Allergy: A Risk Factor For Suicide?" Think bout it: look at the overlap beteen symptoms for common allergies and a major depressive disorder. Now, on the offhand fluke that someone besides Dennis should be reading this, I'm not saying that mowing down all the ragweed in the world will somehow cause a plunge in the suicide rate. Suicide is, and has always been, a complex issue with a quite diverse host of underlying factors. Oh, that it were only as simple as investing in a bunch of John Deere Riding mowers . . .

Still, it does lead one to wonder if maybe we're overthinking things. It's possible that, to the brain/body,  misery is still misery, regardless of whether it's physical, emotional, or biological. All other things being equal, a person suffering from the fullblown effects of an allergy season in full force will not be as happy as, well, as someone who's not. 

God bless,

craig