We're back. It's another episode of the savvy psychologist and I'm your host

Dr. Ellen Hendrickson. Every week I'll help you meet life's challenges with evidence-based research, a sympathetic ear, and zero judgment.

Now, anniversaries aren't just for couples, and some aren't so happy.

The spike in distress around the anniversary of a trauma or loss is called the anniversary

reaction, and it's a very real thing. So this week

we'll talk about what to do when anniversary memories are anything but silver or

gold.

So the anniversary reaction is the annual echo

of that trauma or loss, perhaps the death of someone

dear to you, or a nightmarish ordeal like a sexual assault, a life-threatening accident, or military

combat. But no matter the event, the anniversary reaction is predictable. It's specifically timed, hence the name, emotionally invested, and truly

distressing. And furthermore, it's common. Indeed, some researchers think the anniversary reaction should actually be a new official symptom of PTSD.

Now the reactions themselves are as varied as the events and the individuals experiencing them.

Sometimes the mind remembers, even unconsciously,

reminded by the weather, the light, or other seasonal reminders like back to school or the first signs of spring.

And it all results in a psychological reaction like that spike in depression or PTSD.

So to give an example of a psychological reaction, one study looked at anniversary

reactions in the veterans of the Gulf War of the early 1990s. And several years after the war ended, each veteran and his or her spouse was asked how well the veteran

functioned over each of the previous 12 months.

So each person identified the veteran's worst month, best month, the month

with the most PTSD symptoms, and the month with the fewest PTSD symptoms. And then, the compared the veterans functioning to documented dates of their traumatic

war experiences.

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