Hey everybody
Today I want to talk with you about depression and the holidays.
Why is it so tough and then what are some tips we can do to cope.
So the holidays, they're upon us, whether we're ready or not.
And for those of us who suffer from depression,
this can be a particularly difficult time for us.
I mean lets be honest,
it's a really difficult and stressful time for people in general.
And the thing that makes it really difficult and I find makes our depression worse,
or even gives people what we call seasonal affective disorder, or SAD,
is that all of the greeting cards,
all of the commercials promote giving these lavish gifts
and everything's amazing and everybody's happy
and everybody looks perfect and everything is just perfect
and we don't have to worry about anything,
and no one's life lives up to that.
And so often times we see this stuff,
whether we admit it or realize it or not
the media is pounding us with different things
of expectations of what we should be wearing, what we should be giving,
how much we should be giving, and all this stuff that we really can't live up to,
because no one's life is perfect, right?
So it's really a difficult time.
Some things in our life,
especially being around family, can exacerbate other symptoms.
We can feel more depressed because it's dark out earlier,
and the weather's kind of crappy, and we just feel kind of crappy.
We may get sick.
There are a lot of things.
I always call it the perfect storm with my clients,
because I'm like, well it's family,
and it's spending money, which is stressful
and the weather's really shitty,
and you know there's all these things going on.
So know that your feeling about the holidays
and the depression getting worse is very normal.
But there are some things we can do to preemptively strike,
and to help us cope with the holidays.
Now the first one being:
plan ahead, prepare.
Get your team together,
set up some extra sessions with your therapist.
There are these amazing things called light boxes that we can get.
They had them at Cosco last year,
but they probably have them at any store, even online on Amazon,
that you can put at your desk if you work indoors, for work,
and it just shines light and it gives your body that vitamin D.
It kind of makes your body think it's getting sunshine.
So those of us who struggle because of the seasonal affective disorder,
it can really really help.
We might want to, you know, set up some extra session,
join a group, get together with friends,
get our support team together,
so that if things do get rough, we already have it in place,
we're already doing things to preemptively strike,
so that we nip it in the bud.
Another thing that we can do is:
get out, volunteer, get excited about the holidays in a new way.
It's really really hard for us to stay down and out and feel shitty,
when we're helping others, when people are excited to see us,
when we're giving back.
I often find my clients when they're struggling the most with depression,
they're isolating.
They don't want to leave their house.
They don't want to see anybody.
But think about how much we could brighten someone else's day,
just by spending a day at the food bank, helping sort food.
Or at a soup kitchen making pancakes.
It could be any number of things
and just knowing that we're doing good for other people,
can help bring us out of the depression a little bit.
And if anything, it can help give us perspective,
on our own life and our own struggles.
Now the third thing that we can do is:
if we're at a party, and we find it really difficult
and it's really hard to talk to people
and it's really hard to engage
and we find ourselves kind of slinkying back into a dark hole,
maybe take a break.
While isolating all the time is not good for us,
it's not something we want to do,
there are time when we need to take a break.
Sometimes big parties can feel really overwhelming,
and there may be a lot of questions people are asking,
that we don't want to answer,
or people don't understand what's going on with us.
But taking a break,
going to the bathroom,
maybe just sitting down for a second,
breathing, breathe and reboot.
It's ok to step out of a scenario that's feeling overwhelming,
so that we can come back, and maybe enjoy ourselves even more.
And I made some notes, as always.
And the last thing that I want to remind us all is:
setting reasonable and achievable goals.
Because often like I said,
the media is bombarding us with all this what's expected,
these expectations of what holiday looks like and feels like,
when we look and feel different.
But setting some expectations for ourself and our holiday,
what we would really like to have happen,
making sure they're reasonable,
can make us feel more engaged in the holidays.
It can help us feel happier about our circumstances.
It can remind us all that we have,
instead of letting media remind us of things we don't have.
I mean most people don't get cars with huge red bows on them from their husbands,
right?
That's not real life.
So setting some reasonable and achievable goals can just help us
enjoy our own holiday for what it is and where we're at.
And if you have any helpful tips,
everybody's different,
everyone has different experiences and things that they've done in the past.
Share you're content below.
Let us know what's worked, what hasn't worked,
things that are helpful to you or something your therapist has said to you,
'cause we're a community working together,
and the more we help one another,
the more people we'll reach and the more people will realize that
feeling depressed during the holidays,
or having their depression get worse,
is not a terrible, horrible, un-overcomable thing.
It's something that many people go through,
and we will get through it together.
And thank you so much for checking back.
As always, don't forget to subscribe to my channel.
I put out videos all the time and you don't want to miss them.
And if you're needing some extra support during this holiday season,
hop on katimorton.com
There are great tools and a great community there to help support you,
and get you through.
And I'm on every social media site imaginable,
so if you want to find me, I will be there.
And everyone out there,
have a wonderful and happy holidays.
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