Happy Thanksgiving! As we enter the holiday spirit, we are all getting ready to relax, enjoy time with our family and friends, eat, drink and be merry. However, for some people the holidays can be ruined by stress, depression and anxiety. From travel arrangements, to personal problems, to money issues, to health problems, or just the worry and stress of getting the turkey and all the trimmings to the table at the right time, holidays can cause stress or worsen existing stress or depression. It doesn’t have to be that way; here are our tips for keeping stress and depression away through Thanksgiving and beyond.
Angeles Health’s Tips For Preventing Holiday Stress And Depression:
The key to keeping the holidays as low stress as possible, and to keeping depression at bay, is to acknowledge your feelings, slow down when you need to and try to prevent situations that cause depression and stress in the first place, particularly if you have suffered in the past.
Manage Your Expectations. A lot of the stress associated with holidays arises when people have unrealistic expectations of what they want to achieve over the holidays. Of course, we want it all to be perfect; the turkey cooked to perfection, the best pumpkin pie anyone has ever tasted. If there are family traditions there may be pressure to stick to these, to recreate “perfect memories from years gone by. If the pressure of recreating great memories of the past feels too much, choose a couple of easy to achieve traditions and create new, simpler ones that will help you to create new, unique, low stress memories for your future.
Communicate. If you are under stress, if you can’t be with the people you want to be with over the holidays, if you have recently lost someone you are close to, or if you are dealing with your own illness or that of a family member, be honest about your feelings. Don’t force a smile if you are feeling down; allow yourself to cry, acknowledge how you feel to yourself, and to others. By doing this you will remove the pressure of being happy. This may even allow you to feel happy without even expecting to!
Keep A Budget. You may already know this but it is hard to remember it over the holidays: Money can’t buy you happiness! It’s not the gifts that will make you and the people around you happy, but the time together, the laughs (even if you are laughing at the burnt food!). Write a budget, plan what you are going to spend on food and presents beforehand and try to stick to it. Money worries are a prime cause of depression, by taking control of your finances you can help to keep control over depression.
About Angeles Health
Angeles Health is Mexico’s largest network of private hospitals. With 22 hospitals throughout Mexico we are proud that we are home to some leading surgeons. Providing lifesaving and life changing medical treatments, from weight loss surgery to joint replacements to alternative cancer treatment, at Angeles Health we are committed to improving the quality of our patients’ lives. From lifestyle, to health, to medical intervention, we at Angeles Health are passionate about offering all of our patients valuable information, facilities and procedures that will help patients to stay happier and healthier, for longer.
If you would like to know more about the broad range of procedures available in the 22 Angeles Health hospitals, get in touch today.
