Tips for Psychological Depression During the Holidays
It's easy to slip into a psychological depression during the holidays.
Watching others make merry and cheer can be overwhelming if you are feeling down and blue.
For most people, the holidays are a joyous time with family and friends. However, if you don’t have any close family members, or you have lost loved ones during this time of the year, it’s hard to feel happy. Something eats away at you when others are feeling upbeat and gay. The emptiness you can feel inside can be overwhelming.
Suicide rates jump during the holidays. Loneliness, isolation, financial difficulties, and stress cause many people to shut down emotionally. Many people become so low and depressed, that they simply can’t see a clear way out. Their answer becomes the ultimate answer; death.
So if family gatherings, holiday parties, and the hustle and bustle of shopping only bring you down, realize that you’re hardly alone. Occasional depression is quite normal.
However people with a history of depression need to be especially thoughtful when coping with holiday stress. While it might take some conscious effort on your part, you can reduce stress and maybe even find some holiday joy, too. Here are some psychological depression tips to get you through the season.
Tips to Overcome Psychological Depression
Count - If you tend to become depressed, lonely or just plain frustrated during the holidays, it might be a good time to count the blessings in your life. Focus on the good things in your life. Everyone has a few! Bring out old birthday and Christmas cards, as well as old photographs. Re-visit and re-live the things and people who always remembered how special you are! You'll feel the warm fuzzies melt your psychological depression away!
Listen - The world around you is singing and humming cheerful tunes. You may turn inwardly and not want to hear any of it. If holiday tunes have you turned off, find music you enjoy and listen to it. Music is transformational. The right music can bring you out of a fog and enlighten you! Listen to the music that sounds good to your ears!
Watch - Watch a comedy. Funny old shows or movies make you laugh. The more you laugh the better you feel! Laughing away your tears and fears, is a great way to stop psychological depression in it's tracks!
Forgive - The holidays are a hurried, stressful time for most everyone. Psychological depression is a sign of high stress. Sometimes even our best friends will let us down or forget to give you well wishes. We always hurt those we love the most.
Be Spiritual - When you are spiritual or religious, you understand you are never really alone. Having faith in a higher power can be a tremendous help to you in stressful times. Realizing you are not alone in your struggles, is a lot healthier than facing adversity alone. Prayer can uplift you and help bring you back to center.
Celebrate! - If you’ve lost someone you love, the holidays can remind you of your time together and the time you long for again. Its hard not to be upset or mad that your loved ones are no longer with you. Believe me, I know this from personal experience. It’s hard not to miss people you love and wish they were still here! Be thankful for the time you did share with them. Remember to celebrate their life, not grieve their passing.
Skip Perfectionism - Don’t run yourself ragged just to live up to the expectations of others. Christmas won’t end if you don’t do all the things that others want you to do. Give yourself a break. Worrying about trivial stuff will not add to your holiday spirit.
Good Cheer - Drinking alcohol is a common strategy for overcoming anxiety that surround the holidays. Remember that alcohol in larger amounts starts off as a stimulant and then becomes a depressant. You may feel on top of the world while you’re inebriated, but after-wards you can wake up feeling worse than you did before you drank. Skipping libations altogether or sipping your holiday cheer is a better way to deal with psychological depression during the holidays. Downing alcohol to drown out your problems only gives you a banging hangover!
Help Others - Extreme emotions are abundant during the holidays. Instead of feeling sorry for yourself, consider taking some time to help people who are worse off than you are. Try volunteering at a homeless shelter or helping a friend or family member in need.
Budget Yourself - Financial stress can be bad anytime of the year, but during the holidays, money woes can mount quickly. Worrying about how you’ll pay for presents can be totally unnerving. Anxiety escalates the more you worry. People forget that the holidays are not about giving presents and outdoing the Jones'. Give what you can give, not what you don’t have. Budgeting and sticking to it is a great way to stave off holiday depression.
Eat Healthy - Food is a popular focal point during the holidays. Cookies, candies, fattening finger foods, and extravagant drinks can add calories fast. Eating unhealthy foods will make you feel crappy. Eat too many of them, and you’ll feel down right rotten. It’s easy to overindulge during the holidays, however, if you can find a happy medium, you’ll feel a lot better!
The trick is to eat mostly healthy foods, with just a sprinkle of fat and sugar. If you go overboard though, don’t kick yourself. Try to keep in mind, that splurging foods should be the exception not the rule.
Take a break - Many people strive for perfection during the holiday season especially. You want things to be ‘right’ and your plans to go off unhitched. The holidays are no time to set the bar higher though. No one’s perfect! The holidays are a season of kindness and forgiveness. Save some for yourself.
Get Out of The Grind - If your regular holiday routine fills you with holiday dread rather than holiday joy, it might be time to change things up a bit. Try something different. Have Thanksgiving at a restaurant. Spend Christmas day at the movie theater. Get your family to agree to skip gifts and instead donate the money to a charity.
Try Omega's - Omega 3 fatty acids have a good proven track record of helping people who are depressed. When Omega 3 fatty acids are low, depression can set in more easily. Fish oil, cod liver oil, olive oil, flax oil and chia seeds are all good sources of Omega's.
Always remember! An optimist laughs to forget. A pessimist forgets to laugh!
Psychological depression can strike at any time of the year. However, if life was always good, you'd never know it cause you wouldn't have anything to compare it to! Life is too short to wake up with regrets everyday. So love the people who treat you right and forget about the ones who don't. Believe everything happens for a reason. If you get a second chance, GRAB it. If it changes your life, rejoice!
and chia seeds are all good sources of Omega's.
