Joe is a 22 year old University student following a course in Archaeology.  He is in the University canteen surrounded by boisterous laughter, speakers bellowing 'Ninni la tibkix izjed' and alcohol flowing glasses.  It is the last day before the Christmas holidays and students and lecturers are  throwing academia out of the window and just being merry.

But Joe is mentally in another planet. Since August, after his German girlfriend left him, he has not been feeling his normal self at all.  He stopped enjoying playing water polo, lost his energy and zest for life and his nights became sleepless.

He did not have the courage to tell anybody about this, mostly because he was afraid that he would be considered a weakling. But deep down he expected that somebody would notice these changes that were happening in him. He made it a point to look very sad in the presence of his loved ones, maybe someone will ask him what was wrong.

But to his amazement nobody noticed. A to make things worse everybody was expecting him o be happy and laugh because it was Christmas time.   This made his pain, feel worse. In fact 'pain' was not enough to describe the black cloud of negativity that had surrounding him and the physical pressure that he was feeling around his chest and stomach.

And for the first time in his life, lonely in that University canteen that was full students, he cursed Christmas.

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Joe is passing through what 17 % of the population have at least once in their life: a severe depression. It is paradoxical that during Christmas time I feel the need to write on such sad matters. But it is reality.

I believe wholeheartedly in the magic of Christmas. I wait for it eagerly, and each year during this time I feel like a child again.

But I also feel the need to speak for the many clients I see that during Christmas time they feel worse and not better. The psychological turmoil they are suffering from, basically  precludes them from being able to enjoy  anything, from being positive, from smiling. And the fact that wherever they look they see merriment, and they feel as strangers in it, it makes them feels worse and worse. Their hopelessness and helplessness increase further and further.

And this does not apply only for those who like Joe are suffering from depression. It applies also for those whose loved ones died recently or who even died years ago but during this time. It applies for those who have physical illness that confines them to a bed. It applies to those who cannot afford to buy the Christmas presents they wish to their children. And the list continues on and on .....  

Definitely and definitely; let's all enjoy the coming Christmas period.  Let's pause from our daily grindstone. Let us all enjoy meeting friends and relatives we have not seen for month on end. Let's eat a little more.

But while doing so let us not forget that not everyone is capable to do that, even though they may really wish to do so. And let's keep our eyes open, because a person close to us might be one of them. If persons close to Joe have noticed his predicament and helped him to seek help, perhaps by Christmas his depression would have been cured and he not have  ended cursing Christmas after all!