There is no time of year more closely linked to depression than Christmas. Suicide rates peak in December. Crime and violence are at a yearly high. Post- Christmas depression certainly can be associated with personal losses.
It can also be the result of seasonal affective disorder (SAD).
Most of us are highly excited before a holiday—especially Christmas. Holidays mean time off work, spending time with family and friends. We look forward to this. We spend months getting ready for Christmas. Then, in a heartbeat, it is all over but the leftovers and the clean-up. It leaves us still geared up, or exhausted, or overstuffed and letdown. We think: Is that all there is?
One in four people suffers post-holiday depression (PHD). It may last only a few days or it could continue for months.I get the post-Christmas blues every year. After Thanksgiving, there is great anticipation and excitement until Christmas Day. Christmas brings with it the gathering of friends and family, shopping, presents, entertaining, Christmas concerts and cantatas. With no big occasion to look forward to and the cold and winter to endure, Post-Christmas depression sets in. If, like me, you’ve lost loved ones at Christmas this compounds the feelings of loss and letdown.
Here are some tips I have found helpful for dealing with those post-holiday blues:
Recognize that you are depressed and acknowledge what is making you feel melancholy. If depression lingers, discuss it with your doctor or seek counseling. It may be a physical or emotional condition that is bigger than a few days of post-holiday letdown.
Focus on the positive. When you feel depressed, sit quietly for a few minutes and think about the good things that happened during the year. Write them down if that helps.
Post the list of blessings where you can see it regularly. Consider a gratitude journal. Each day write five things for which you are grateful. You cannot repeat your gratitudes. They must be specific to that day or week or however often you write in your gratitude journal. Make this a regular activity. You will be amazed at how it lifts your spirit.
Compose a new year’s resolution list to ensure those good things recur. This will help you focus on the future, not the past,
Start next year’s gift list now and capitalize of after-Christmas sales. Completing tasks will give you a sense of accomplishment.
Touch base with those who sent cards or gifts or who stopped by for a visit. Email or call them. For those you didn’t get to see over the holiday, bake something and stop by or put together a tray of those frozen Christmas treats. Offer to help them in some special way. Focusing on the feelings and needs of others takes your mind off how you feel.
Get yourself a project. Maybe you saw a need over the holidays and want to extend help for this person, family, or group. Many are well looked after with time, money, or attention at Christmas, and then forgotten until next Christmas.
Being needy is not limited to Christmas!
Send New Year’s or “Have a great winter” e-cards or design your own winter greeting card. The creative project will be uplifting and your card may lift the spirit of someone else who is feeling low.
Start a birthday list of friends and relatives. Set up e-cards or snail mail cards for them. The sense of accomplishment will lift your spirits.
Call someone you haven’t spoken to in a long time. Get reacquainted. Plan an activity together. Start a regular family get-together whether it is a meal or a potluck or an outing. Organize a fun activity at work like a secret friend or a contest for the best or worst piece of clothing or the best hat on dress-down day or an office luncheon or an after-work outing. Having things to look forward to is uplifting.
Join an exercise or yoga club or commit yourself to thirty minutes of Pilates each day. Feeling fit will get those endorphins moving and banish depression!
Start planning your next vacation. It gives you something to look forward to, takes your mind off being depresses and often saves you money by capitalizing on seat sales.
Rededicate your life to a cause: family, a sick friend, church, bridge, visiting a seniors’ home, offering rides to cancer patients, being a hospital volunteer, helping out at the local library… Nothing dispels depression faster than finding a cause and realizing there are a lot of things in our lives for which to be grateful!Teach yourself a new skill or craft. Learn to play a musical instrument. Enroll in an educational program
Join or start a book discussion group.
Resolve a problem or conflict with a friend, a relative or a neighbor.
Read a good book or watch a video on post-holiday depression or SAD. It is comforting to realize you are not alone! (See resources list for suggestions.)
A sure fire way to banish the blues is to focus on people, places, projects and pursuits outside yourself. It is unrealistic to assume that people don’t get depressed. The trick is to know how to deal with these feelings.
As author Lucy Maud Montgomery noted: “I know that in everybody’s life must come days of depression and discouragement when all things in life seem to lose savour. The sunniest day has its clouds; but one must not forget the sun is there all the time.”
Resources
Dyer, Wayne, W. No More Holiday Blues
Flynn, Carolyn. Holiday Peace and Joy.
Ilardi, Stephen, S. The Depression Cure: The 6-Step Program to Beat Depression without Drugs
Lasky, Kathryn. Dear America: Christmas After All
Mullen, Jim. Kill Me Elmo: The Holiday Depression Fun Book.
Ryder, Apryl and Israel, Ira. Yoga for Depression and Anxiety.
Stewart, Gerry. Post-Holiday Blues.
Movies/Videos
Christmas with the Kranks
The Homecoming
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
WebMD. Post Holiday Blues. http://www.webmd.com/depression/video/depression-holidays
