Victims of holiday cheer

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

By Robyn Vincent

HOW TO COMBAT BAH, HUMBUG.

Women and senior citizens are most susceptible to the holiday blues, according to Carolyn Pepper, Ph.D., a clinical psychology professor at the University of Wyoming.

“Women are most affected because they tend to take on all of the responsibilities that occur during the holidays – shopping, cooking, buying gifts, hosting parties, etc,” Pepper said, adding that senior citizens also suffer low spirits during the holidays because they have often experienced some type of loss in holiday months.
Pepper defined the holiday blues as a more temporary, less treatable, condition than clinical depression.

The best way to resist holiday blues, Pepper said, is to maintain healthy eating and exercise routines, to reach out to the community by volunteering and to lower expectations.

“We are often caught up in the expectation of perfectionism for the holidays,” Pepper remarked, “Even though everyone may not get along all year, we expect them to during the holidays.”

Pepper said that images of the ideal, wholesome family holiday scenario, projected in the media, skew realistic takes on what the holidays can and should be.
Scaling back on what have become excessive holiday routines also helps, Pepper said, offering examples like cooking less extravagant meals and using fewer decorations.

Taking time to laugh, according to certified recreational therapist Kelli Jones, is an especially healthy practice during the holidays.

“Laughing brings you to the here and now; when you’re engaged in laughter exercises you forget your troubles and your stress disappears,” said Jones, who recently launched a laughter yoga class in the valley.

According to Jones, research shows that a good belly laugh improves mental health by strengthening and balancing the immune system and releasing endorphins. Stress hormones like cortisone also decrease.

Puppy dogs and hearts aside, a peculiar press release arrived in Planet JH e-mail, Monday. It parenthetically, though morbidly, grazed the subject of holiday depression, so we had to share.

“An unfortunate and unexpected side effect of suicide can be dealing with a mess which may be created if a suicide occurs in a home or auto,” began the press release.

A group of volunteers assembled by the Freemont County will help pay for and provide “clean up services.” PJH


PERMALINK:
Victims of holiday cheer | Planet JH News Article: General Health And Fitness

Leave a Comment