Hey everybody! I was on another forum and someone started a thread about how to deal with depression around the holiday seasons. I thought I'd share a few solutions that he/she posed:





Some of the things that beat depression are things like:

Get enough sleep. Many people don't get enough sleep during the holiday season with the hustle and bustle and being overly tired can lead to depression.

Eat properly. another thing people tend to not do around holiday is eat properly. It's a time of year when people tend to fill up on the sugary snacks etc and then they aren't hungry for the healthier foods. Not eating enough healthy foods can lead to depression because your body is depleted of the necessary vitamins and minerals.

Don't drink caffeine.

Don't drink a lot of alcohol.

Try to stay stress free. Hurrying around to shop, hurrying around to decorate, hurrying around to party after party can all lead to stress and a side effect of stress is depression.

Do something for someone else. A sure cure all for most depression is to get out of self and reach out to someone else. Helping someone else just simply makes you feel good. Visit a nursing home and just talk to the residents (this gives you some down time as well as helping someone else). Help out a family in need. Help out at the Salvation army or Goodwill or any other project that is working this time of year.

Make sure to just take time for you. Time to just watch tv, read a book, play a game, relax. Many times being overly busy can make you be tired and cause depression.

Sometimes, if you have lost a loved one in the past year or past few years, the holidays can be depressing due to the memories you had of that loved one being part of your holiday. Make a memory book or scrap book of the loved one with holiday pictures for your past. Allow yourself to grieve and feel the feelings.

Sometimes it just helps to cry, scream, hit a pillow, or something else that is not endangering yourself or anyone else to let the emotions out too.

Journaling is a good way to get out your feelings and help to put things into perspective too.






Do you often experience depression around the holidays? How do you like to deal with the situation?

All good ideas. I think people get so wrapped up in the unbelievable hype that they totally forget how simple and low-key the holidays can be. It's a time to relax, reflect on the past year and think about resolutions for the coming New Year, a time to see or even just think about loved ones, a time to be kind and feel the kindness of the world around you (it is out there, it just doesn't get any press, lol). Mostly it's a time to be thankful for all your blessings, no matter what you can be sure that you DO have some to count .

I can relate with a lot of those suggestions. I have found that helping people lifts my life in so many ways.

The suggestion that I would add which I have found to be the most powerful, is to know that you are enough ! You don't need to be another way. Every reason that you have which makes you think that you do, is a learned idea and not a universal truth. In every moment you are enough !

This was helpful, newhoove.

I think so many ills in our society can be traced to the relatively recent introduction of total materialism, which by its nature forces one to overfocus on one's self, into the holidays, which used to be about home and hearth and gratitude to a deity's largesse. I think many of us here may fare better because we tend to reject material "wantsits" in our everyday lives, and to not be suckered into elevating them at this time of year. This tend to make facing the loss of a loved one or some other misfortune easier, even at this time of year. I always think of the Cratchits; they had their priorities straight

Getting there.