Category Archives: History & Psychosis

Christmas Psychosis

  • A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

‘Tis the season to be jolly, kiss under holly, and have a psychotic break of melancholy. Christmas can often be paradoxical in how much people genuinely love the holidays by counting down the days as early as July or putting up trees well before little kids in costumes harass their neighbors for candy. Others approach the festivities with dread, reminiscing of long-dead loved ones and family traditions, or generally being a grouchy old humbug. For those unfortunate individuals in the latter category, the Christmas season heralds a harbinger of mental illness–a cyclical wave of psychotic woe canopied by snow and the feverous delusions of a Grinch-like low. And also an epidemic of rhymes.

‘Christmas Psychosis’, a phenomenon largely felt by those like me working in mental healthcare who notice a surge of crisis beginning in late November through to the new year, is the idea that something about this time of year triggers a wave of renewed psychotic symptoms in a population already prone. Perhaps one of the most famous iterations of this case is the fictional Scrooge finding himself haunted by hallucinations of ghosts representing the past, present, and future Christmases. A Christmas Carol is a seasonal classic, many of us grew up seeing it performed in theaters, and Charles Dickens was no stranger to depicting bouts of psychotic depression in his works (Garratt, 2022). But is the idea that psychosis comes but once a year, with such prevalence, we ought to leave it out a tray of cookies, one that’s based in reality?

On a scale of 1-to-psychotic, how you doin’?

Since at least the 1950’s, some psychoanalytic thought has suggested that neuroses around Christmas time were because the celebration was focused on the birth of Jesus, the ultimate God’s favorite child over the rest of us, and that this brought up unresolved feelings related to competing against our siblings (Boyer, 1955). As the older and obviously favorite child who was Christmas-gifted the PlayStation over my brother, I can’t say that I’ve ever felt triggered by Jesus for having his own holiday. Though there is some evidence to suggest that being around Christmas-y things can lead to a negative psychological impact on people who are not religious or participating in festivities, who may already be dealing with feelings of exclusion (Schmitt, et al., 2010). There is even a bizarre phenomenon known as White Christmas effect, where researchers use Bing Crosby’s version of the song to study participants’ capability of auditory hallucinations. In traditional versions of the study, the song would be played briefly, and then white noise would be played for the participants. They would be asked if they could hear the song through the white noise, with around half of the people saying they could, and over a majority of schizophrenic participants stating the same. But many researchers suspect the general population may be reporting hallucinations because they were expected to or because they may already be prone to flights of fancy, rather than because songs about Christmas cause psychosis (Scott & Leung, 2025). Though I certainly do feel like losing my mind when Christmas songs are played on retail loops before Thanksgiving.

Is Santa Claus real or just a figment of your imagination? If you see elves, please call 911

But surely there must be an uptick of emergency room visits when it seems like everyone and their dog spends the majority of winter slightly unhinged. That, too, appears difficult to determine. Some studies show there certainly does seem to be an increase in ER visits for psychiatric reasons during the holiday season (Halpern, et al., 1994), but others show that there may even be less utilization of the ER during the holidays for mental health, despite what we assume about psychosis season (Schneider, et al., 2023). However, there does appear to be a noticeable uptick in miserable feelings around Christmas and alcohol-related deaths, with the period after the holidays showing the real increase in psychiatric hospitalizations (Sansone & Sanson, 2011).

So, basically, Christmas Psychosis is all in our heads. Fitting perhaps, but not an unjustifiable conclusion given how crazy things get around this time of year. I will say this, however, if there is any truth to the matter of psychosis for Christmas, maybe watch how much nutmeg you’re putting in your eggnog! That DOES cause hallucinations (Ehrenpreis, et al., 2014).

Fact Check it, yo!

Ehrenpreis, J. E., DesLauriers, C., Lank, P., Armstrong, P. K., & Leikin, J. B. (2014). Nutmeg poisonings: A retrospective review of 10 years experience from the Illinois Poison Center, 2001–2011. Journal of Medical Toxicology, 10(2), 148-151.

Garratt, P. (2022). Household ghosts and personified presences. In A. Woods, B. Alderson-Day, & C. Fernyhough (Eds.), Voices in psychosis (p.153). Oxford University Press.

Halpern, S. D., Doraiswamy, P. M., Tupler, L. A., Holland, J. M., Ford, S. M., & Ellinwood Jr, E. H. (1994). Emergency department patterns in psychiatric visits during the holiday season. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 24(5), 939-943.

Sansone, R. A., & Sansone, L. A. (2011). The Christmas effect on psychopathology. Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience, 8(12), 10.

Schmitt, M. T., Davies, K., Hung, M., & Wright, S. C. (2010). Identity moderates the effects of Christmas displays on mood, self-esteem, and inclusion. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(6), 1017-1022.

Schneider, E., Liwinski, T., Imfeld, L., Lang, U. E., & Brühl, A. B. (2023). Who is afraid of Christmas? The effect of Christmas and Easter holidays on psychiatric hospitalizations and emergencies—Systematic review and single center experience from 2012 to 2021. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13, 1049935.

Scott, M., & Leung, T. T.-C. (2025). I’m whispering a white Christmas: masking relations in hallucinatory speech. Language and Cognition, 17, e71.

History and Psychosis

The Scream by Edvard Munch (1893). As the story goes, Edvard was out for a walk shortly after his sister had been committed to an insane asylum. Suddenly, the skies turned red and he sensed ‘a scream’. He depicted this experience of psychosis in his most famous painting.

The crazy thing about psychosis is how misunderstood it is in the popular imagination. What does it mean to have and how do the symptoms manifest?

For those who have been following my blog for years, you’ll have noticed I’ve taken a bit of a hiatus—emerging every so often to post a vulnerable little missive on heartbreak. It shouldn’t be too difficult to piece together the story of what happened, but since then, I’ve kept a promise to that teenager I tutored and subsequently lost when their mother and I were forced to part ways. Back then, I decided to go back to school to earn my degree and eventually become licensed to practice therapy to help others—a goal I had shared with both mother and child. What inspired the change of career path for me was that teenager and the struggles they dealt with while navigating an unsupportive family life as an openly trans kid. Eventually, the pressure and stress of constantly fighting with family led to mental health issues for that teenager which resulted in hospitalization at a psychiatric clinic. There, they shared their experience with symptoms of psychosis with doctors.

Psychosis is defined as an experience that denotes a break from reality–this can range from delusions, hallucinations, and/or bizarre behavior such as disorganized speech. It is a symptom, not a disorder, and can be featured in diagnoses such as Schizophrenia or Major Depressive Disorder. Causes can range from extreme stress, and substance use, to genetic predisposition.

I felt helpless at the time and a little bit scared. What does it mean if someone I love and care about like my own child, hears voices that tell terrible, self-degrading things? What could we do to help? Would they be okay? Part of that promise was doing everything I could to involve myself in uncovering those answers. And though, per their mother, I am not allowed contact with that teenager any longer—I can do everything in my power instead to help those like them. The reason that I have been unable to update this blog is that I have been busy working at a psychiatry clinic since last year and becoming part of the team at our university that specifically treats patients dealing with first-episode psychosis and the research meant to provide hope for the future.

Basically, I’m doing the damn thing. Sempre ❤️

This is, however, my history blog playground for my research dumps where I can humorously recount the things I’ve either taught myself or felt like sharing with the public. Now feels like the perfect time to merge both passions, exploring the presence of psychosis in well-known historical things, events, or people. From the Oracle of Delphi to insanity contextualized historically, to any excuse to write about how much I love Joan of Arc. Famous individuals and artists in history have experienced psychosis and come out making some of the most beloved works in the world…one of them cut his own ear off for good measure too. Many Kings, Queens, and rulers have also suffered and so have others when the consequence of mental illness often leads to wars of succession. Mostly, I hope to also provide a picture of psychosis that is less terrifying–to shed light on its frequency and treat it with the comfort we have in more common mental health struggles like depression. Let’s de-stigmatize. People with psychosis are unwell but they are not inherently dangerous nor should they be treated as such. Let me show you all the brilliant people in history who had it and went on to do extrodinary things, like inventing calculus. Though, I suppose you could say someone would have to be a little mad to make sense of it in the first place.

‘Madness’ in history hadn’t always included the modern concept of psychosis. The term itself was introduced to psychology in the 19th century, and it’s important to remind the audience that some experiences in history will fit the definition of psychosis but may also fall under the umbrella of a cultural or religious phenomenon for some. Think of the prophets and saints, those who prayed and spoke to gods or heard prophecies, or perhaps figures who developed a grandiose view of themselves and thus the confidence to back it (Did Alexander the Great experience psychosis then? Let’s discuss.) Part of this series will be meant to think about the causal relationship between psychosis and ‘normal’ experiences like superstitions and ghost stories. And some of it will be debunking the usual tomfoolery of myths like the Schizophrenogenic Mother or taking a look at the Four Humors theory of the ancient world. Naturally, we’ll need to dismantle ‘hysteria’ and talk about how Nellie Bly should be everyone’s hero. I’ll pick and choose the order, no rhyme or reason most likely, but know that psychosis and mental illness will heavily feature–and we’ll find a way to have some fun with it.