Anniversary syndrome is a concept that refers to the recurrence of death, accidents, illnesses, and ill fate in a family.
The influence of anniversary syndrome is observed when analyzing family history spanning three or more generations. Difficult events in the family often recur on the anniversary of significant events, such as the death of an ancestor, an accident, or a serious illness. Importantly, once we identify the event that initiated the cycle of difficulties and process it appropriately, there is a good chance that difficult events in the family will cease to recur.
The concept of anniversary syndrome was introduced by Josephine Hilgard. She demonstrated that there is a statistically significant correlation between the loss of a significant family member and subsequent illnesses, accidents, and deaths in the family. Hilgard studied patients in a psychiatric hospital between 1953 and 1957. She discovered that people who had lost their mother or father as children, due to their death, confinement in a psychiatric facility, or a serious accident, experienced a similar crisis again in their own lives.
This crisis occurred when these people reached the same age at which they lost their parents, or when their children were the same age as they were when they lost their parents. Hilgard used her discovery to help people with mental illness. In the context of family events, their mental illness was also perceived as a repetition of family history, rather than a misunderstood mental disorder. Her work brought these individuals concrete help. Their mental illness was seen as part of the family history that had already occurred, not just as an anomaly.
Fifty years later, many therapists from various therapeutic approaches have noted the recurrence of various phenomena in families, such as illnesses and accidents. The phenomenon of anniversary syndrome, and more broadly, the cyclicity, is an important aspect that can facilitate recovery for many people.
An example of a milder form of anniversary syndrome is the condition experienced by individuals who suffered from intense anxiety, fear, or physical illness at the age at which their parents or siblings died. After the one-year anniversary, these symptoms diminished or disappeared when the individual realized the connection between their condition and the death of a parent, sibling, or other significant person. Psychoimmunology provides evidence that anniversary syndrome is often accompanied by a weakened immune system.
The cyclical nature and recurrence of anniversary syndrome are not easy to recognize. The events that constitute anniversary syndrome are difficult, painful, and perceived by the family as frightening or shameful. Family members quickly forget about these painful events or never learn about them in the first place. Family’s concerns are often focused on the family's future, the children's education, and financial security. However, anniversary syndrome changes parents' intentions because it manifests itself through the difficult fates of certain family members. These people are both influenced by the family's tendency to forget unpleasant and painful events, and at the same time, they are under pressure to recreate these events in their lives.
The two contradictory tendencies are key:
- The family wants to forget difficult events.
- The opposite tendency is that a person who is ill feels an unconscious compulsion to recreate a given event in their life. This could happen, for example, through an accident, death, or illness, which recur in the family's history. Accidents, death, and illness are among the unexpected events.
In situations of illness or close encounters, families' habitual behavior tends to shift toward providing medical assistance to the ill person. This cyclical nature and recurrence of these events within the family are lost on us. However, analyzing examples of difficult family events often reveals that these events recur cyclically within the family.
Cyclicity is present even in the case of cancer.
Example I:
After her wedding, the daughter-in-law moved into her in-laws' home after her mother-in-law died of ovarian cancer. On the 5th anniversary of her mother-in-law's death, she was hospitalized with a condition similar to that of her deceased mother-in-law. After the anniversary of her mother-in-law's death (day and month) had passed, the young woman quickly recovered.
Example II:
On February 20, 1980, a young married woman received a notarial certificate of inheritance for a plot of land after the death of her parents. Forty years later, on February 20, 2020, the woman transferred the plot of land to her son by notarial deed.
Example III:
Great-grandfather's brother died at the age of 18 after being hit by a horse. His great-grandson loved horses and had been riding since childhood. On the anniversary of his ancestor's death, the almost 18-year-old great-grandson took his dog to the stables. The dog was fatally hit by the horse. This was a tremendous loss for the family.
The anniversary syndrome affects events of various scales, from everyday events that recur in family history to events involving repeated illnesses, accidents, deaths, and difficulties.
By
Teresa Ossowska, and
Małgorzata Krupińska
