Mediation and Hormones: Mediation and Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

The mediation industry is affected by hormones. No, not the hormones you’re thinking of: the hormones we get when the seasons change. In the late winter most people get testy from lack of exercise and sunshine. They’re prone to argue and that’s why most church fights take place in late winter and I get church mediation work then. Mediation and seasonal affective disorder, go hand-in-hand

The same thing is true in personal lives, too, but the dynamic is different. In churches, people will start to fight midwinter. Most church fights settle down and a few need mediation so they call me. (usually a lot fewer churches need mediation than actually get it!). But in homes, people fight and when things get really nasty, they realize they’ve got no place to go. Sadly, most of my mediation with families is divorce mediation (if people would come to me BEFORE it gets to divorce I can help save a marriage but that’s another blog post…). When couples think about splitting, that means two households and moving in the middle of winter is no fun and most people have little energy in late winter. So people most often hunker down and live with it without calling me. Things often get worse and worse, and the kids suffer the most. But when spring weather hits, those spring hormones kick in after a few hours in the sun and people feel better, feel like a change, and have the energy to make a change. So they call me in spring for divorce and child custody mediation.

Many fights, whether church or personal, fade away when the nice weather hits, if they haven’t reached the point of no return. But that doesn’t mean the fights were only caused by crabbiness. Issues usually don’t go away on their own. Unless resolved, most fights will recur at stress points in church or marital life and will almost certainly come back in worse form the next winter, if not before. like I said above, mediation and seasonal affective disorder go hand in hand. That’s why it’s good to call me first, before things get worse. Mediation can really help!