As Millions Struggle This Season, Kindness Might be Best Gift

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

It’s the season that turns up the volume on every feeling, for better and for worse. The lights come out, the advertisements glisten, and yet psychologists note that November through January sees a spike in anxiety, depression, and loneliness.

The CDC estimates that nearly one in five American adults will experience a diagnosable mental illness each year; by the holidays, that abstract ratio starts to look more like family. In South Carolina, for instance, surveys show rising rates of mental health struggles and seasonal affective disorder and a widening gap in access to care (as well as waiting lists for most care).

Still, there is something quietly radical about small kindnesses. Holding a door instead of hurrying through it, listening instead of diagnosing, asking a tired friend what they need instead of what’s wrong. Compassion, like light in the darker months, is cumulative.

If everyone kept it up until January, the city—or the town, or the streets where we live—might feel warmer. Then, once we’ve seen the difference such gentleness makes, why stop at January?