Valentine’s Day is rapidly approaching and many couples around the world prepare to elaborately surprise their partners. While many people just look at Valentines Day as a day for couples there is unfortunately a side to this holiday that does not get as much light as it should get.

Many singles around the world suffer from depression due to loneliness and Valentines Day only makes it worse. It comes towards the end of a long winter where people have spent more time alone thinking about their life and now they get another month where they get discouraged even more about how lonely they are. The entire day is dedicated to romance and unfortunately you can only partake in this if you are in a relationship.

This time of year also raises an important question to singles: Are they going to be alone forever? This raises the fear of being alone and contributes to suicide rate and depression being up through the month of February. “The myth is that Christmas is the most high risk time for people to become suicidal, but actually it’s springtime,” said Diane Brice, director of Suicide Prevention Service of the Central Coast (SPSCC). “Nationally, that’s the time with the highest rate of suicide” via cityonahillpress. Brice also adds, “And then February comes and you’re supposed to be in love and you’re supposed to be feeling better because it’s springtime, but some people don’t,” Brice said. “That’s when it gets really difficult for people, because of the expectation to feel better.”

Many people refer to this sadness leading up to Valentines Day as SAD (Seasonal affective disorder) but I personally like to call it the February Blues. I personally had never felt these blues until last year when all my friends started getting into their own relationships. Although Valentines Day is not as elaborate in high school, I still felt this sadness leading up to the day and during.

I decided that other people I know must be going or have gone through this so I set out through the halls of Elder to find students who have had these blues just like me.

The first person I found was Brent Stahl. Brent has been known to be a man of the ladies so I thought that he had to of gone through this once in his four years at Elder. To no surprise he in fact had these blues and even has them now while Valentines Day continues to creep up on us. Brent told me, “To be honest I had never thought about these feelings when I had them or what to even call them. I just thought it was a cycle of depression like most teens go through our age but now that you have mentioned it the past couple years during February are when this depression have hit the hardest.” I asked him how he keeps his mind off the idea of being alone during the month of February and Brent told me he is luckier than most. Brent said, ” I think I am luckier than most in this situation because I am still wrestling at this time of year so that helps to keep me busy and my mind of Valentines Day.” Brent was not the only person that I encountered throughout the halls of Elder that has experienced these blues.

Another Senior, David Gruen, is a part of the Hope Squad here at Elder. I asked Dave if this time of year typically raises students they see. Dave told me that although he has not had any official meetings with anyone regarding the February Blues but he has seen a change in peoples tones and emotions during this month over the past few years.  I then asked Dave if himself had every experienced these February Blues. Dave spoke on this and said, “I indeed have. To be honest I think they have hit me already this year. The Blues are feelings that not a lot of us guys like to talk about but something we need to. They are a real thing and hopefully we all can get through them this year.”

The Blues are a real thing that start to occur during the month of February through spring. People need to spread awareness for singles everywhere because Elder is not the only place these Blues are present in and they are slowly taking the country by storm more and more each year..