Dealing with Winter Blues

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The last few weeks of the winter holidays are upon us, as are the shortest days of the year.  What can we do to boost our mood and keep things merry and bright?

The article "Lighten up!  How to beat back winter blues" provides suggestions for deal with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), which is described as periods of depression that correspond with the seasons of the year, usually occurring in fall or winter.  The article advises exercise, healthy eating and sunlight exposure for dealing with symptoms commonly associated with SAD (depressed mood, anxiety, irritability, fatigue, carbohydrate-craving and weight gain or loss).

For more information about mental health issues related to the winter season, read our recently posted holiday tips provided by the American Psychological Association (APA) and look over our post featuring a Mental Health America article about stress and depression during the holiday season. As always, visit our website for more information about mental health and wellness!

Contributed by Lora M. Dziemiela, Program Secretary

Maintaining Holiday Cheer: Tips from the APA

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We're right in the middle of the winter holiday season!  While this is the season "to be jolly," the winter holidays can also be a time when family and economic pressures increase and dim our holiday cheer. 

The American Psychological Association (APA) has a variety of online publications to help manage stress while navigating the holiday season.  Articles such as "Making the Most of the Holiday Season" and "How to Stay Calm During the Holidays" give tips for dealing with common as well as unique stresses during the holidays (family tension, breakups, time pressures and tragedies.)  Articles like "Tips for Parents on Managing Holiday Stress" and "Dollars and Sense: Talking to Your Children about the Economy" deal with helping children understand financial pressures in age-appropriate ways.  For more general information about building emotional resilience, read the APA's brochure, "The Road to Resilience."

For more information about mental health, visit NAMI Southwestern Pennsylvania online and keep up with our blog with a subscription to our RSS feed!


Contributed by Lora M. Dziemiela, Program Secretary

Coping with Stress and Depression During the Holidays

It's early November, and the holiday season is just around the corner! The holidays can be a time of joy and excitement, but for many, they can also contribute to stress and depression.

According to the Mental Health America (MHA) article, "Holiday Depression and Stress," many factors can contribute to the "holiday blues" including unrealistic expectations, fatigue, financial constraints and the demands of family. The article includes simple tips and reminders for dealing with holiday pressures before, during and after the festivities.

Looking to stay connected to NAMI Southwestern Pennsylvania on the web? Subscribe to our blog RSS feed and visit us at our website for more information about mental health and wellness.

Photo: Thanksgiving Dealies, Some rights reserved by Martin Cathrae

Contributed by Lora M. Dziemiela, Program Secretary

Five Tips for Surviving the Holidays

The following article is taken from BP Magazine.

Five Tips for Surviving the Holidays

Finally! It's the holiday season! We get a break from work, visit family, watch football games, eat great food.

And the other time-honored tradition: we get to stress out. And with unemployment across the country rising, many people might truly have a blue, blue Christmas.

"When someone becomes stressed they're experiencing an age-old, very normal reaction to the perception of some sort of threat," says Dr. Jonathan Abramowitz, an expert in anxiety disorders and professor of psychiatry and psychology in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Medicine and College of Arts & Sciences.

"Your heart races, your chest gets tight, you start to sweat. There are catastrophic thoughts: Oh, no! What's going to happen? And then we act--it's the fight-or-flight response," Abramowitz says. "At its heart are normal and adaptive behaviors."

Stress, anxiety, depression and anger all are caused by certain patterns of thinking. "When we get angry, we're telling ourselves that things must or should go a certain way, or other people must or should behave certain ways."

With the economy, we might be thinking about things that dictate out emotions.

But, Abramowitz says, it's the way we think about things that dictate our emotions.

"If we're thinking, 'I have to buy gifts for everyone. We signed up to take this big vacation, we have to travel.' Those set us up to be let down."

So, what are we to do?

* First, identify what the trigger is -- a relative's comment or the thought of a departed loved one -- recognize how it makes you feel and slow down your thought process to keep your emotions from going 0 to 100 in 5 seconds flat.

* Put expectations into perspective -- lower them; the holidays do not have to be perfect.

* Think of yourself first; we cannot control what others do or say but we can change the way we think about things.

* Limit demands and ultimatums: replace "should," "must" and "have to" with "I wish," "maybe" and "my preference..."

*Remember the holidays are temporary; January is right around the corner.

"We don't have to like the holidays, and they might not be stress free, but going into them thinking, 'This is temporary, I can get through this,' instead of "Oh, God, this is going to be awful,' prepares you to get through them," Abramowitz says.

For information on mental illness visit NAMI Southwestern Pennsylvania website.