Guide To Managing Mental Health Around The Holidays

Have a plan – It’s important to have a plan going into the holidays. What will you do if you’re offered a drink or if a trigger arises and drugs or alcohol are available? If you start feeling uncomfortable at a party or gathering, will you have a way to leave?

Don expects a core group of community members to declare that they are ready—that it is their time. The time perspective Don conveys has many dimensions, beginning with a profound sensitivity to history. He further demonstrated how to “forgive the unforgiveable” and draw upon the history of cultural resistance and recovery to break such intergenerational cycles. Don has repeatedly reminded us that we cannot understand today’s addiction problems or their solutions without seeing them in historical context. With support , families can heal and break intra- and intergenerational cycles of addiction and related problems.

• After, I would almost always feel more clear-headed and brave about the magnitude of the work I was doing.
• ‘Tis the season of giving, which means people everywhere are lining up in stores and online to pick out the perfect presents for their loved ones.
• And when they do, they see me loving them, despite what has happened.

Instead of letting anxiety build, try to keep yourself occupied before the holiday. This might include practicing distress tolerance skills, doing self-care, or relying on someone in your support system. Take advantage of other https://ecosoberhouse.com/ ways to connect, including sending out holiday cards and communicating with family and friends by phone, text, email, and social media. In the northern hemisphere, the holidays coincide with winter’s lack of available sunlight.

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“Clients sit quietly for approximately 30 minutes allowing the treatment to take effect,” explains Dungan. Before she began performing the treatment on clients, the registered nurse was fully trained as an acupuncture detoxification specialist. Blazik says that concerts, vibing and dancing are still fun AF, and you can remember the event!

Journaling can be structured with goals to address the stressors of the day or difficult feelings that were experienced. But journaling can also be free flowing with focus on gratitude for life’s gifts and even prayer.

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Cayla Clark grew up in Santa Barbara, CA and graduated from UCLA with a degree in playwriting. Since then she has been writing on addiction recovery and psychology full-time, and has found a home as part of the Guardian Recovery Network team. 2) Find a consistent peer support group– In most cases this will be your IOP group. Once you graduate from your IOP program you will want to look for a 12 step program homegroup. A homegroup is a specific meeting that you will attend every single week. You will start to develop friendships with the men or women in this group, and you will ultimately be able to keep one another accountable.

• So now it’s really more like people are drinking at home for the most part.
• There is a difference between the professional-client relationship and the relationship of the peer leader and the peer being served that warrants an ethical framework specifically tailored to PRSS.
• And I know that I’m going to be around a lot of people who are drinking, I’m burning the ships starting today.
• Simply reframing challenges to opportunities is a great start.

Work with a therapist on cognitive-behavioral therapy tools on identifying triggering and negative thinking patterns and emotions, and learning more realistic reframing ideas. This can help with relapses and practice forgiveness and self-compassion. Practicing internal self-talk is Reframing Holidays in Early Recovery also a part of self-care. Practice and plan out how you can challenge your thoughts. It can be someone who will listen to your struggles, and offers encouragement, to a friend who can help you get through a holiday meal. Chris Howard is the Founder and Director of Ethos Recovery.

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Your priorities might look like staying healthy, staying sober, and meeting your basic needs. If you don’t get anything from speaker Zoom meetings, attend Big Book discussion meetings. If you can’t focus on reading, listen to a podcast. Don’t exacerbate the shame cycle by beating yourself up over something that isn’t working. It doesn’t matter what other people are doing; if it doesn’t help you, it’s superfluous. When we’re overwhelmed and overstimulated, we need less. Prioritizing isn’t a free pass to do nothing, but a way to get back to the basics.

• Although the holiday blues can be difficult to handle in recovery, you can get help from your therapist, counselor, or addiction treatment provider to learn how to manage your symptoms and find support.
• As a comprehensive behavioral health facility, Casa Palmera understands that drug and alcohol addiction and trauma are not only physically exhausting, but also cause a breakdown in mental and spiritual sense.
• And so if our gut isn’t healthy, then how are we expected to produce those healthy neurotransmitters that make us feel good.
• What would a meditation look like or a few minutes of mindfulness?

If you are reading this blog, I’m sure you’ve been victim to this phenomenon. If you stop and think about it, you can look back over the various holidays and personal birthdays and recall yourself trying to appease the narcissistic person in your life. You were most likely trying to make sense of the drama. But, truth be told, you may have discovered that there is no sense to be made.

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Feeling stressed, anxious, or depressed during the holiday season isn’t uncommon, but your recovery can be seriously affected if you don’t do anything about it. Sobriety has to be your top priority regardless of what’s going on around you, so don’t feel like you’ve failed if you need additional support. Everyone struggles and you are a work in progress. During the holidays, you’re more likely to feel pressure from family members and friends to be perfect. For example, you may feel like you need to give the perfect gift, host the perfect event, or that your life needs to meet certain expectations that your parents have. Trying to live up to those expectations is impossible and will only produce feelings of guilt and depression.

You may fantasize about your hopes and dreams for the holidays, however, it may only BE hopes and dreams. Be realistic about yourself and your life as you move into the holidays.

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If you’re early on in recovery, or experiencing an eating disorder slip, don’t try to challenge yourself on Thanksgiving. Just do whatever you need to get through the day without restricting food, using compensatory behaviors like exercising or purging, and try to avoid setting yourself up for a binge.

This is your Healthy Self, that is often so much more available for others than for ourselves. Recovery requires working through so many intense fears and challenges, and body image fears and distress can feel like some of the most difficult. The author holds both MA and MLIS degrees from the University of Maryland, College Park. He served as a middle manager and preservation librarian for over a decade at Harvard University and is now the Librarian for Southern California at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, California.

Wow, so much of what you have written here resonates with me on such a deep personal level. This really has given me much to think about, consider and explore.

Have them call you if you need an excuse to leave a conversation that may trigger you. Designate at least one support person to confide in and keep you company. Seasonal affective disorder is a more severe form of the winter blues. According to researchers, the percentage of people in the United States who struggle with SAD ranges from 1.5% in southern Florida to 9% in northern states.

Often, people with an eating disorder feel an immense need to be helpful, productive, and — at times — micromanage everything. This may stem from a sense of guilt over food, a perceived need to help, or a desire to have some sense of control over a potentially chaotic day. It’s okay if you just “get through” the holidays. Getting through the holidays with an eating disorder, and maintaining your recovery, is more important than anything else. Sign up now for our webinar series supporting mental health and wellness. However, there are ways in which we can prepare ourselves and hopefully deflect some of the increased stress of the holidays. It’s important to realize that we do have more control than we think we do.

Make a list so that you have those strategies, that are personal to you, to lean on when things get tense. Some of the responses to stress depend on the person’s age. The young and the elderly show stress in different ways, and specific techniques may be needed to relieve stress for each of these age groups.

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Gift Mindfully – A good option to avoid enabling is to not give gifts. Gifts and gift cards can be converted easily into money to buy drugs or alcohol. It may seem harsh to not exchange gifts over the holidays but putting money into a savings account they cannot access or planning future trips may be a better way to think of gifts.

Harmony’s Opioid Programming Experience is a combination of education, counseling, and the use of medication in early recovery. HOPE expands MAT to include medications that alter the physical response to opioids, reduce cravings, and give the patient time to heal from the psychological, social, and spiritual wounds of addiction. The study published in the Journal of Addiction Medicine found that almost 8 percent of patients with OUD died within 12 months of being discharged. The authors say their findings highlight the need for addiction care in the hospital, as well as generally improving health systems for patients with substance use disorder who also have other medical conditions. Paul shares some helpful hints from listeners to develop a game plan for the holidays.