You know the typical holiday storyline: Depression and suicide rates peak during the holidays. Actually, though, people suffering from depression tend to be fine during the holidays. Their struggles come later, after the festivities are over.
In Sonoma County, the influx of calls begins just as the holidays end and continues through March, according to sources at the North Bay Suicide Prevention Hotline and Sonoma County’s National Alliance on Mental Illness office.
Telephone counselors who staff NAMI’s Warmline receive their largest number of calls between January and March.
The agency’s most recent data shows 480 calls during the first quarter of 2015, compared with 454 calls for the fourth quarter of 2014, 284 for the third quarter of 2014, and 398 for the second quarter of 2014.
“(Telephone counselors) hear individuals say, ‘I held it together through the holidays,’” said Nikki Buckstead, executive director of NAMI Sonoma County.
To continue reading this article by Christi Warren, go to: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/n...-during-holidays-not
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