Psychiatrist Puts Name on Line Against Holiday Blues

In Germany, Noel lustig suggests a merry Christmas to many people. In Tarzana, Noel Lustig tries to assure one.

Dr. Noel Lustig is a psychiatrist who helps people shake off the holiday blues that make Christmas miserable instead of merry.

The holiday season can be a depressing time if Christmas fails to match a person’s childhood memories or the storybook celebrations that are depicted on television.

“Holidays are a time when people start evaluating their lives,” said Lustig, 52, who has practiced psychiatry in Tarzana for 21 years and heads the 62-bed Mental Health Institute at Northridge Hospital Medical Center.

“You feel very weird when you can’t pump yourself up to be happy.”

Because of his name, Lustig’s phone rings frequently during the Christmas season as unhappy people look for a way to turn their lives around. About a third of his patients have come after suffering through a Christmas season, he said.

German-Language Callers

“ Lustig means ‘merry’ or ‘happy’ in German. Noel means Christmastime in Southern Germany,” he said. “Most psychiatrists don’t get phone book calls. But I’ll get a dozen calls every Christmas season from people who know German.”

Reasons for holiday depression are varied, Lustig said. Some people may be psychologically out of step because they are off work for holiday vacations and away from the structure of their daily routine. Others’ systems may be out of balance from overindulging in holiday food and drink.

Some become depressed by the pressures of giving--or not getting--holiday gifts.

“You can’t make someone give you a Christmas present or invite you to a Christmas party,” Lustig said. “People feel a terrible sense of loneliness and a tremendous drop in self-esteem when that happens.”

One of Lustig’s patients, a 42-year-old West Hills housewife, said she felt loneliness as this Christmas season arrived.

“I’m 2,000 miles from my family,” said the woman, who asked that her name not be used. “When I put up the Christmas tree and played Christmas music this year, I really felt the loneliness.”

She said there are other holiday frustrations, too. “You see the kids counting the gifts under the tree, and you wonder if there are enough presents under there. When you shop, you feel pressed in the shopping malls. There’s no place to park anywhere.”

The woman said she is learning that “not everyone is happy at Christmas. I don’t have to walk around like Santa or the elves. I don’t expect Christmas to be as happy as all the fairy tales.”

Holiday depression can be chased away if lonely people plan trips to places like Hawaii at Christmas or jump into volunteer work, Lustig said. Psychiatric counseling also helps.

Free Programs

There are free clinics and seminars on holiday problems for people who can’t afford the $120 per session for private psychiatric care. Northridge Hospital staged two such workshops this year, on Dec. 1 and 8.

“We got a very good turnout for the workshop where Dr. Lustig spoke,” said Dr. Brenda Hayes, administrative director for the institute. “People see his name and read into it that it’s a holiday name.”

Hayes said the hospital and the institute get up to 30 calls from depressed people during a monthlong period in late December and early January. In contrast, eight to 10 calls come in during a typical summer month, she said.

Northridge Hospital officials say suicide attempts decrease at Christmastime, however. That was also the conclusion of a study of suicides nationwide, reported earlier this month.

University of California, San Diego sociologists who studied 188,047 suicides in the United States from 1973 to 1979 said they found that there is generally no increased risk of suicide during the holidays.

Lustig said the Christmas suicide rate drops because people are more likely to be in closer contact with family members and friends at this time of the year.

Cases of depression soar, however. At one of the Northridge Hospital clinics, a woman told Lustig that she had done everything right, but that her husband had died and her children would not be home this year and her happy home had been yanked out from under her.

“That’s the Santa Claus fantasy,” Lustig said. “If you are good, you should get something.”

Sometimes you just get the holiday blues.