Post - perihelion phenomena

If this hypothesis is correct there should be a rapid and markedly difference in mood after January 4th.  

Indeed there is.  Right after new year we start to hear about the need to fight depression and start dieting .  The assumption being that over-consumption at the holiday feast was the cause rather than a symptom of some more general somatic response.

Depression peaks at this period of rapid recession from the closest point 2 weeks before.

There was an statistician who calculated that January 21 is the worst day of the year

After that February depression is augmented by hormonal spring mating drives. Suicides increase in March.  School shootings seem to peak at this time of year as well.  

Winter Holiday Stress

Many people seem to be noticeably affected by the winter holidays.  I know I am.  I also observed that this energetic cycle is not an isolated event but rather part of a continual process which is year long, but most noticeable from the Autumnal equinox to the Vernal equinox.  

Beginning around Halloween I begin to feel an increased agitation, high energy but dysphoric.  This Is marked by rising anxiety.  It is common.  You hear many people at that time of year complain of their increased stress.  Most attribute it to the pressures of having to deal with family and buy gifts.  Many of us just put on a strong face and hope that the season passes as quickly as possible.  

However what if this is a backwards assumption.  What if the holiday is not the source of the stress but the means by which people in days of yore tried to cope with this ubiquitous shift in energy.  

Winter holidays exist in almost every culture regardless of their religious orientation. Winter holidays are associated with symbols of light.  Most people feel that this is due to the diminished length of winter days.  

However there is another possible explanation.  What if this winter holiday pattern and somatic stress patterns are due to the proximal velocity of the earth as it approaches the closest point to the sun.  The earth is not only moving closest but also fastest at this point.  What is the affect on the mind-body by this shift in 3 million miles?

Is it possible that solar fields or other energetic phenomena are responsible for the pattern which seems to peek and pass at the time the earth is closest to the sun?