Holiday Blues

With Christmas just around the corner, busier traffic, a rise in sales, and a general feverish panic that seems to be associated with holidays are not the only things that increase. During this time, most people are at risk for relapsing on drugs and alcohol and becoming depressed. In fact, it is a well known fact that suicide rates go up during holidays.

The reason for this is stress caused by a variety of things:

• Having to be around your family
• Lack of companionship/annoying family members
• Insufficient funds
• Strain of cultural expectations
• And the list goes on…

I have found that my holiday blues comes on when I lock myself into either my own often high expectations or someone else’s. When I find myself locked in a cage of “should’s” and “ought’s,” I often bare my teeth. Surprisingly, such growling produces poor results and life does not get any easier for anyone involved. Perhaps, a change of strategy is in order?

Expectations are powerful little buggers and I have found that I have to work hard not to let them run my life. So, I have decided to try to let go of my expectations of magic under the Christmas tree (I am referring, of course, to presents) or any other traditional cultural must-have’s and must-do’s. I’m going to lower my expectations, but in this case, it is a really good thing for everyone involved.

This will be a second Christmas for my husband and I as a family and we really have not worked out any set “family” traditions. Niether one of us is into crowded shopping malls. We would rather lounge around, watch movies, and sip hot cocoa. Needless to say, we are both thankful for online shopping. We are slowly working on figuring out what works and doesn’t for us as a family, no matter what may be “expected.” So, I am looking forward to creating some traditions this year. I’ll let you know what funky things we come up with.