“For some, it could be tied to previous negative experiences with birthdays. Others may reflect on their lives and may not feel they are where they wanted to be by that specific age,” says Dr. Lira de la Rosa. “For others, birthdays can come during times when they are going through something difficult.”
This could be anything from a fear of ageing, loneliness, past trauma, or even a friend flaking on your birthday plans. The important bit is to sit in these feelings and really interrogate why you're feeling the way you do, says King. Maybe you feel like you're behind in life with the approach of a milestone birthday.
Feeling down and anxious on your birthday is not that uncommon. These birthday blues may have different causes but typically go away on their own after a while. You might experience dread, irritability, and feel unmotivated for a few days before your natal anniversary.
It's perfectly normal that you are not excited for your birthday. After a certain age, you start to give up all the materialistic expectations from the people around you. In short, life happens to you.
Birthdays can remind us that we are aging another year. It's the “official” day that we are one year older, even though the day before our birthday we feel virtually the same. High expectations. Sometimes we are disappointed by not having expectations met by a birthday party, celebration, or gifts.
Always have unexplained feelings of anxiety and what feels like a depressive episode in the days leading up to your birthday? This phenomenon is called 'birthday depression', and it's pretty common.
It might be because there's something about birthdays that can bring out a bunch of conflicting feelings — excitement, dread, melancholy, gratitude, etc. It's no surprise that for some folks, crying on your birthday is pretty much a yearly tradition along with the cake and candles.
You shouldn't feel ashamed if your birthday doesn't make you want to celebrate. Birthday depression can include feelings of anxiety, irritability and social withdrawal. Birthday depression isn't an actual mental health diagnosis. Instead, it's a way to describe what you might feel around your birth anniversary.
For those who always get the birthday blues, it might be a good idea just to accept that they might feel sad. They can allow those feelings to come into their mind, acknowledge them, and then put them to one side and get on with the day in a more positive frame of mind.
The researchers attest that birthdays serve as “temporal landmarks,” which make us perceive our future selves as more distinct from our current selves—which in turn makes us more motivated to attain the improvements we perceive our future selves will have.
“Kids under the age of four or five typically cry because it's completely overwhelming,” Kryss Shane, a family therapist specializing in child development told Fatherly. For one, parents are frazzled to get everything right, there's a crowd of children, and maybe even a pony. Plus, everyone wants a picture with them.
The fact is one's birthday is a special day to celebrate, you. While most people like to spend this day with friends and family, it's totally fine if you want to spend your birthday by yourself.
If your child cries when people sing to them on their birthday or refuses to blow out the candles, you are not alone. Sensory overwhelm, the pressure to perform, and being the center of attention can be all too much for a highly sensitive child.
Not wishing someone happy birthday isn't always a negative thing, because it's sometimes a genuine mistake. That person is likely to remember a couple of days later and be so mortified by their oversight that they contact you and apologize, or send you a belated birthday message.
Have a movie night or binge watch a TV show. Movie nights are great for introverts because they don't involve socializing! You can enjoy a chill night with a friend or by yourself. Plus, it's your birthday, so you get to choose what to watch.
Psalm 118:24
“This is the day the Lord acted; we will rejoice and celebrate in it!” The Good News: God created mankind and the Earth, so we owe him our utmost gratitude! Rejoice for another year of birth and give up a prayer of thanks.
Another reason why some people don't love their birthday could be due to feelings of sadness and loneliness if they have no friends or family to celebrate it with. If you have them, you may feel down on your birthday if your family and friends forget to text you, give you gifts, or do something special to celebrate it.
Dr Quinn-Cirillo said it is actually quite normal to cry on your birthday due to the sheer emotion of the whole day and as crying is an emotional response it doesn't always have to be negative. “Sometimes the mere fact of a birthday can make us emotional- the overwhelm of the birthday itself.
For example, people born in January and February tend to be more creative, and have a higher chance of being diagnosed with schizophrenia, than people born at any other time of year. And people born in odd-numbered months tend to be more extroverted than those born in even-numbered months.
The Least Common Birthdays
December 25 (Christmas Day) is the least common birthday, while January 1 (New Year's Day) is the second least common. December 24 (Christmas Eve) also makes the list as the 3rd least common birthday while July 4 (Independence Day) is the 4th least common birthday.