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How Do You Deal with Depression Around Christmas?
SleepyHappyDoc asks: "Lots of people around the world seem to experience more sadness and depression around the holiday season, than in other times of the year. There could be any number of reasons why this is, but my question is: how do you deal with it? Have you managed to find any coping strategies or activities that make things feel less bleak?"
1) Run a couple miles (or more if you can) every morning
2) Eat chocolate (add in magnesium food supplements too, if you like)
3) Use a full-white-spectrum lamp
First off , if you are suffering from any kind of depression that is seriously affecting your day to day life then see a doctor . There is no point suffering in silence especially around this time of year when it can be amplified by many many things.
.this is caused by a chemical imbalance due to the lack of daylight . A high powered solar lamp can help you here will alleviate many many symptoms . Again see a doctor , if you can not see a doctor due to area or if you are in the USA for example (due to your medical insurance not covering this) then have a look for some local or online support groups .There will be people out there who can advise you on things that really help remove the strain .
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A depression around winter time in the northern hemisphere can be caused by a few things :
1: Seasonal affective disorder
If you suffer from a condition such as Bipolar affective disorder then chances are you will also suffer from Seasonal affective disorder , just keep taking the Medication and supplement it with some time by a solar lamp (Again see your doctor)
2: past trauma/upseting events/Loss of a loved one etc. : Any upsetting event around this time of year can be amplified due to the fact that most people appear to be having a good time . Feeling alone and miserable at a time when everyone around you is so happy really does tend to make things feel a whole lot worse .
Talk to people about , find a support group , anonymous if you need to if you can then surround yourself with family and friends, but do not suffer in silence . Just accepting the Depression can be catastrophic for your health.There are many people out there who will be more than happy to help.
Your doctor will be able to point you in the right direction , that is what they are there for
3:Mental illness : If you suffer from a mental illness and feel that symptoms are worsening around this time of year then immediately talk to your doctor . Chances are they will supplement your medication or find some other way to help you .
It is important that you speak to someone and do not feel silly about it if you have to go to a doctor . You are not wasting there time and depression can be a serious illness , but there are many many remedies which can really help. Do not suffer in silence.(sorry to repeat myself)
This is by no means professional advice and may not even apply to you , but if you do feel any of it applies to you then see your doctor as soon as you can .
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
I take medication during the holidays. Prescribed by myself. Ok I am not a doctor, so I self-medicate with alcohol.
If what you are reading sounds funny, or sarcastic, lame, or stupid
it is because it is supposed to be. just laugh
By following the simple advice I heard on the Dr. Phil show, I have finally found inner peace.
Dr. Phil proclaimed, "The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you've started and never finished."
So, I looked around my house to see all the things I started and hadn't finished, and before leaving the house this morning. I finished off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of White Zinfandel, a bottle of Bailey's Bristol Cream, a bottle of Kahlua, a package of Oreos, the remainder of my old Prozac prescription, the rest of the cheesecake, some saltines and a box of chocolates with the rest of my Smirnoff and Xanax.....
You have no idea how freaking good I feel.
Depression is a real illness, a real problem, and one that has been proven over and over. I know. I used to work in treatment and saw it over and over. I even went through it. If you havne't been there, you simply don't know. To be honest, your statement shows you have no clue what is going on with depression, but it also shows so much hostility that it makes me wonder if this topic doesn't touch on a sensitive spot for you. (why else would you make such a strong negative statement?)
Telling a depressed person to "quit feeling sorry for yourself", or to "just deal with it," or to "get over it," or to "get out and do things" does NOT work. I never believed this until I went through it. Depression means emotional pain a person who hasn't been there can't believe or undrestand. It often means physical pain, sleeping many hours a day (for me it was 14 or more!) and a lethargy that is almost unbelievable. You can give a person like that medication, but then they often don't care enough or don't have enough energy to remember to take it regularly. While symptoms vary from person to person, a person with clinical depression is usually literally incapable of doing anything other than laying around and feeling sorry for him/herself. Think of a person so depressed they don't see a chance of life getting better and can't imagine things being good enough that the pain is bearable. They have no reason or motivation to take their meds or to do anything to get better.
That is what clinical depression is like and for most, they simply can't do what you suggest. The only way out is often only to go through it (and not suicide) or meds -- assuming there is someone to make sure meds are taken when needed until the patient is doing well enough to keep up with them or that there is a way for them to make sure they get all the needed meds, even when too tired to care about them.
But the connection does not show that one causes the other.
Depression is an illness, has been proven and has predictable, measureable effects.
Telling people to get out sounds good, but it's just a way of blaming them instead of acknowldeging there is a problem and this often makes them mroe depressed. If the parent poster, and the others in this thread don't believe that, then maybe a little research would help.
"sadness and depression"
First, ask yourself if the sadness and depression is realistic. Is your connection with other people far less than is required to meet your needs? People in the U.S. culture often have families in which the members are very disconnected from each other. It's healthy to feel sad about that.
Second, depression is caused by inner conflict. To relieve depression, you must resolve inner conflict. The fake methods of dealing with depression don't work, they just delay the intensity of the problem until later.
This will probably get modded way down, but for me, accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour has given me a peace and comfort that transcends any depression of the Christmas season. Why? Because I now have an eternal perspective on things that I never had before. Even if I live to be very old, my life here is truely very short in the perspective of eternity, and placing my faith in the eternal salvation of Jesus Christ gives me a hope that is far greater than any issue that this life can bring.
No, it's not scientific, but I can say that since accepting Christ, I have experienced very real and tangible peace, hope, and understanding that gets me through every second of every day.
If you hold even the slightest shred of possibility that God could exist, consider taking some time to simply ask God to reveal Himself to you. Don't expect a burning bush, but in your heart, ask Him to help you reveal Himself to you. Worst case, you waste a few minutes of your prescious time. Best case, your eternal destiniy will be sealed.
If you only have mild/seasonal depression, my personal opinion is that chemicals would probably do you more harm than good.
Studies have shown that living a healthy lifestyle decreases your likeliness of getting depressed even if you are naturally prone to depression. It may be a chemical imbalance, but your body can easily be teased into manufacturing more of the chemicals you need to stay mentally balanced. Exercise often, even if you are already within your normal BMI, get plenty of sunlight, keep a normal sleep pattern and force yourself to be more social. My personal experience has been very positive, but of course YMMV, and if your condition worsens or fails to improve SEE A DOCTOR.
If you only have mild/seasonal depression, my personal opinion is that chemicals would probably do you more harm than good.
Yes. I should have mentioned that, but I was trying to be brief -- and, to be honest, as a human, it is easier for me to talk about what I had and what I had to deal with in patients when I worked in treatment. In those cases, SAD was never an issue, so, to be honest, sometimes I overlook it.
Studies have shown that living a healthy lifestyle decreases your likeliness of getting depressed even if you are naturally prone to depression.
In general I agree, but there are often uncontrollable factors. If you're trying to be healthy, but have an extreme work situation, that can overwhelm all the other points -- and once that "overwhelming" starts, it can be a very rough downward spiral, leading to not caring to exercise or keep a healthy focus.
One point I've heard, but haven't seen tested, is that it can help to get sunlight around either sunrise or sunset so the body's clock will be reset to the current cycle. I know this works for travellers dealing with jet lag, and I've heard it can help depressed people refocus their cycle, but I have yet to see any proof or talk to someone who tried it with depression in mind.
Sleep patterns are important, but can be disrupted easily and if there is any stress or any other trigger, for someone prone to depression, that can create the downward spiral I mentioned.
Personally, for me, the one big thing that made a difference was when I finally got control of my life, which included getting rid of bitchy girlfriends (or even ones that just treated me poorly), and getting out of jobs where I had little input and starting a business where I actually had control over what happened and there was a direct link to my decisions and work and their effects on my life improving. Now I don't even get sick (unless I work to exhaustion) and don't take any medication other than 2-3 aspirins a year.
But it is still easy for me to remember what depression was like -- the lack of energy, the inability to care about anything, the struggle to get out of bed each day, the emotional and physical pain, the sleeping for up to 16 hours a day, and, especially, and worst of all, the idiots who wanted to blame me and thought all I had to do was "just snap out of it."
BTW, thanks for an insightful post -- especially your last 3 words! It is frustrting to see, in a forum where most people are supposedly well educated, so many post by people that want to "blame the victim" and say things like, "Just stop feeling sorry for yourself."
When your mind is in the algorithm, you will have no time to feel depress. Thats why whenever I feel the blues, I start coding like a mad man.
If Christmas makes you depressed, try celebrating Hanukkah.
Just wait till you want to quit. You're in for one hell of a ride.
5. Profit!!!
I live almost 45 degrees north, so to help compensate for the lack of daylight, I set a couple lights in the house on timers to simulate summer daylight hours. So it's always light out (in the hallway) when I wake up at 6:30am. I assign myself some projects, including some I'll enjoy for their own sake (e.g. write that short story I've been mulling over in my head), and some that I'll enjoy having finished (e.g. clean the kitchen). I drink, but with a strict cap on the quantity.
I've developed some private holiday traditions. I buy myself a Solstice present (new digital camera this year). Every New Year's Eve since I stopped going to parties (which I only enjoyed when my partner was there with me, and he's not any more), I've spent the evening alone with a bottle of wine and some yummy snacks, doing something to "freshen up" my living space (e.g. reorganize my bookshelves, move the furniture around in the living room, relocate the server farm to another room).
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
Which reminds me, I didn't drink enough over the weekend.
Drugs are not the answer. Psychiatry isn't either! Scientology is the only way to beat depression.
No. Not really.
Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters