Feeling the Holiday Blues?

The Holiday season is so very stressful. Work, parties, shopping and financial strains, baking, cleaning, kids on school break, relatives you love to death but can’t stand to be around - you name it. I was first diagnosed with Depression about six years ago, and funny thing is, is that it was around the holidays. I tended to, and sometimes still do get a case of these ‘Holiday Blues.’ Not until recently did I realize how common depression is during the Holidays and that I’m not the only one who suffers through this.

In an article I read, Kenneth Johnson, M.D., Psychiatrist, of Columbia St. Mary's states that "Wintertime in general is a little bit harder for people, but I think the bigger cause of holiday depression is unmet expectations." I totally agree.

It’s like you strive to pull off this ‘Hallmark Moment’ and nothing goes right. People seem to think, myself included, that the holidays are somehow ‘magical’ and that come the end of October, everything that’s in shambles the entire rest of the year, is supposed to just all come together. For example, I love my mother to death, but there is a reason why I do not live in the same state with the woman – we just have a better relationship from afar. I know this, and have accepted this. But when we visit each other during the Holidays, instead of accepting reality, my mind somehow tries to pull off that ‘Hallmark Moment’ and get disappointed that things don’t run smoothly.