Your Mental Health, As Dictated by the Stars

Although most people don’t really turn to astrology for their daily doze of mental health guidance, research suggests that our birth months may actually impact our mental states.

It’s a strange concept to wrap our minds around, but in light of scientific evidence, there may be something to it.

Winter Mental Health Trends

Turns out, schizophrenia and bipolar disorders are most common in people born during the winter and early spring. That’s not to say that there are no other reasons for this trend, but there is a positive correlation between the two. A study conducted at London’s Queen Mary University closely studied the health records of over 29 million English people, out of which 58,000 had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. The researches determined that those who were born in January had the highest prevalence of the disorder, followed by February and March.

But there’s more.

Cross-cultural psychology embodies a theory called The Big Five, which suggests there are 5 main characteristics that make up our personalities. These are: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. Now, according to a study conducted at the University of Tokyo, agreeableness – which is essentially an individual’s kindness and approachability – is lower among people born in the winter. But, another study conducted at the University of Bologna indicates that there is no clear link between agreeableness and being born during this time. Therefore, more research is needed to establish or dismiss a clear connection.

Spring Mental Health Trends

The media would have us believe that the most amount of suicides happen around the holiday season, or during the winter when people tend to suffer from seasonal affective disorder, but the reality is that most suicides tend to occur in the spring and summer months.

According to LifeScience: “On an average day, 105 Americans lose their lives to suicide. And counter-intuitively, more of these lives are lost when the weather is warm and the sun shines bright…In fact, studies dating back to the late 1800s find that suicides peak in the spring and are lowest in winter. One 1995 study published in the journal Social Science & Medicine examined monthly suicide rates in 28 countries and found that in 25 in the Northern Hemisphere, suicides were most common in May and ebbed in February. Similar findings occur in the Southern Hemisphere — in South Africa, for example, suicides peak in the southern spring, in September and October, according to a 1997 study in the journal Psychiatry Research.”

Summer Mental Health Trends

According to the same study conducted at the University of Bologna, “males presented greater conscientiousness (being thorough, careful, or vigilant) variation with summer born participants scoring lower.”

Furthermore, “People born during autumn/winter have shown a more marked morning preference compared to those born during spring/summer, who are more evening types regardless of nationality.”

And, at the annual European College of Neuropsychopharmacology conference last year, Hungarian researchers presented findings from their study, which showed “cyclothymic temperament” (rapid, frequent swings between sad and cheerful moods) was “significantly higher in those born in the summer, in comparison with those born in the winter.”

Autumn Mental Health Trends

Interestingly enough, people born during autumn seem to have less depressive temperaments when compared to those born during the winter.

So, there you have it ladies and gentlemen, there may actually be a connection between when you were born and your mental health!

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