Holiday depression
Hang out with the people you love. That always makes me smile.
I'd say they should put together a much of a holiday as they can, and keep in mind that from one year to another some holidays are going to be better than others. Try to create a little "holiday atmosphere" but then just enjoy being with whoever it is you can be with. If you're alone then concentrate on how liberating it is to be able to do what you feel like doing without regard for what you think you should be doing.
This isn't the same as a Christmas, but one year I had to spend New Years Eve in the hospital because of a threatened miscarriage. My young-woman roommate and I spent the whole night talking and talking. We knew we were a pathetic duo, but we enjoyed the conversation all through the night. As with holidays, the night/day passed, and we got on with life and went on to have more normal New Years Eves in the future. In the scheme of life, all holidays are nothing more than one day. Sometimes it has to be ok not to feel very "holiday-ish".yep.
i like to visit the bunny rescue. they have like a hundred bunnies there and they are so cute. i don't work there, but i visit with the wonderful volunteers and the bunnies, of course
i also keep Christmas music on, turn on all the Christmas lights as soon as i get home, and try not to reflect on those who are gone so much. that's the bad thing about holidays, they mark time's passing as no other time of year does, so you feel the absence more sharply. and yes, don't overspend, great advice!That works when one's problems remain external enough that they're something a person can get their mind off. The trouble for a lot of people is that problems can be so big or last so long, the person actually has physiological changes that turn problems from being something external to becoming as inescapable as one's own endocrine system. That's why people sometimes need to recognize that their unhappiness, "blues", is essentially a physiological condition; and they can't expect, at least for a while, to feel happy. When life has "sucked the life out of" someone they, and those around them, really need to know that others understand it isn't their own "bad mental attitude" that has created such a challenge in overcoming those "blues". ("Blues" - what a stupid and meaningless word to describe the kind of unhappiness so many people live with, particularly when holidays come around and highlight it.)
If I could give one comment to anyone suffering with genuine depression or genuine unhappiness (and they aren't necessarily the same thing), I'd say they should understand that they're dealing with something that amounts to a physiological condition (even if it's "plain old major unhappiness), and that they aren't going to overcome it in the next week or two. They need to accept that sometimes we don't feel as happy at holiday time as we have at other times, and they (or anyone close to them) shouldn't expect the "blood out of a stone" kind of thing from that, any more than one would expect someone with two broken legs to run a marathon.
- lyricsingrayposted 14 years ago
0someone called me - my name is depression this time of year
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