Zac Brown Shares New Holiday Music Video To Help People Combat Christmas Depression

For many people, the holiday season brings about feelings of joy and happiness. Merriment abounds. But a psychological condition known as the holiday blues can press down upon a person who has it, conjuring up feelings of hopelessness and depression.

The holiday blues is a real phenomenon. People tend to feel more stressed, anxious, and depressed in the period spanning from Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. According to Psychology Today, some people who suffer from the holiday blues do still feel happy and jolly at times, but those feelings are accompanied by fatigue, irritability, and sadness.

Zac Brown, lead singer of the Zac Brown Band, is speaking out about the “Christmas Blues” and wants people to know that they’re not alone. He has premiered a new music video exclusively on People for the band’s single “Someone I Used to Know.”

“I think the holidays are a time when people feel a lot of pressure, and I think it’s good to remind everybody that it’s okay to be human,” Zac, 40, told People. “It’s okay to ask for help.”

Zac shared that he doesn’t necessarily feel down during the holidays per se, even though he’s faced some tough times in his personal life recently and doesn’t have the same pep in his step this Christmas. He and his wife Shelly announced in October that they were separating after being together 12 years. The couple has five children.

Zac Brown Releases New Music Video to Help People with Depression During the Holidays: 'I'm Trying to Face Things That Are Hard' https://t.co/0Pe47l0j3A

— People (@people) December 21, 2018

“I’d love to be able to share this with other people. I’ve lost dear friends to suicide. “Whatever was gnawing at them, whatever was eating at them that we didn’t know and couldn’t see, it obviously felt bigger to them than asking for help and having someone else go through it with them. It made me realize, too, that I don’t want to be that person that can’t face themselves and get to the other side so that I can be well for myself and for everybody else around me,” he said.

In the Zac Brown Band’s new music video, Hunger Games actor Alexander Ludwig depicts a young man moving forward through the different stages of his life. We see him as a star college football player, then as an Army recruit and after being injured on the battlefield, as a coal miner.

It’s obvious that he deals with a range of emotions at every stage of his life, and turns to alcohol to cope. But it isn’t until the end of the band’s video that he finally realizes he has loyal network of people ready and willing to help him, People shared.

Zac said it was important to him to have the character be a veteran struggling to adjust to civilian life. He’s worked with and supported many such veterans as part of his non-profit organization Camp Southern Ground.

“One of our big missions at Camp Southern Ground is helping veterans transition to battle and transition them back home from battle,” he said. “I feel like we owe our veterans a lot and we’ve got an amazing program going here at camp to help them find meaning after their service is done or to find a path that fits their strengths and their passions and help them to be more fulfilled in their civilian lives after they’ve given so much. We try to give back as much as we can.”

The music video ends with a powerful testimonial provided by Zac where he reminds people that “they don’t have to be alone in what they feel.”

“Pain and depression don’t discriminate. This song is me facing that part of myself of where I want to go and not where I’ve been. I would encourage people that when they feel like they have a need or they have a voice that’s telling them to face something, it’s a sign of strength to ask for help and to face the things that are really hard. That’s what defines you, overcoming those things,” he said.