Title: Birthday Depression: 12 Ways to Conquer the Birthday Blues
Headings: Unhappy Birthday: How I Conquered the Birthday Blues
Unhappy Birthday: How I Conquered the Birthday Blues
Feeling the weight of others’ expectations
Finding the best way to celebrate
12 Ways to Conquer the Birthday Blues

Content: For some people, though, birthdays are a source of ambivalence, anxiety, or depression. But they’re unavoidable, coming once a year whether we like it or not. Generally, I’m not that enthusiastic about celebrating my own birthday. It’s not that I hate it, exactly, but I just don’t see the need to make a big fuss about it every year. My birthday happens to coincide with the start of the busy holiday season, too, so my stress is already sky-high. During the November to December stretch, I’m trying to figure out vacation schedules, work demands, and family travel — not to mention Thanksgiving menus and shopping and cooking and cleaning and planning and budgeting and Christmas presents and, well, who has time for a birthday? Since I tend to be the planner of my family and my group of friends, it typically falls to me to make my own birthday plans: picking a restaurant, making a reservation, getting a babysitter. This just adds to my to-do list and stress level. Most of all, though, the reason I no longer look forward to my birthdays as much as I once did is that I’m missing a key person to celebrate with me.