HELP...ITs the Holiday Season...

Christmas has NEVER been my favorite time of year...due to my alcoholic mother and absentee father. Now i am 36, living alone 800 miles away from my childhood home and i hate this season even more. I cant take one more person asking me, "So, whatcha doing for the holidays?" !!!! My depression is getting worse the closer we get to the BIG day!

HELP!

Hello & Welcome, Robyntw!

Oh, the holidays... Many people here commiserate with you. In the meantime, enjoy these PsychCentral articles on this timely subject:

8 Ways to Keep Your Sanity During the Holidays By Therese J. Borchard
Coping with the Holidays Guide PC Special Report (links)
Holiday Stress: A Resourceful Survivor’s Guide By Sherrie Mcgregor, Ph.D.
Coping with Thanksgiving PC Special Report (links)
Alone During the Holidays? Join the Crowd By Laurie Stoneham
Holiday Traditions By Marie Hartwell-Walker, Ed.D.
Family Stress at the Holidays, Part 1 By Erika Krull, MS, LMHP
Family Stress at the Holidays, Part 2 By Erika Krull, MS, LMHP
Depression At The Holidays By Erika Krull, MS, LMHP
Coping with the Festive Season: Tips from Clients (Part 1) By Gabrielle Gawne-Kelnar
Coping with the Festive Season: Tips from Clients (Part 2) By Gabrielle Gawne-Kelnar
Holiday Stress Survival Tips By Christy Matta, MA
How to Survive the Stress of Fall and Winter Holidays By Christy Matta, MA
4 Steps to Decrease Emotional Vulnerability at the Holidays By Christy Matta, MA
7 Tips to Smooth Over Your Holiday Stress By John M Grohol PsyD
8 Ways to Take the Joy Out of the Holidays By Marie Hartwell-Walker, Ed.D.
4 Holiday Health Strategies: How to Maintain Your Well-Being During the Holiday Season By Christy Matta, MA

most depressives hate hoiday,s it take you out the norm. Your safety net is cut an you feel weird, your best part of christmas is JAN 2

I agree...thanks!

Hello and welcome. I am going to go with Rohag here. Thank you Rohag I might do some reading myself.

Christmas can be awful when suffering with depression, Rohag has posted some great info here. Hope you do enjoy christmas. Best wishes

I know just how you feel..especially everyone asking what your plans are..I hate that. Wish i could sleep right through to 2012 but since I can't, I tell myself I've gotten through it every year, and will this time too. Great holiday spirit, isn't it? Depression just multiplies at xmas. All the best...Sandy

It's especially hard when everyone else has great plans with family and friends, and what is left of your family and friends are ashamed of you and don't want you around. My stepfather died on Christmas Day last year which is making it really hard for me, but no one cares. I've been told all of my life to be myself, except no one wants who I am around and I can't be anyone else. I love that Marilyn Monroe quote. It's going up on my FB status.

Right there with you, Robin. But I am also realizing that a simple calendar change will not result in any change in my mood unless I work harder on it; there is no magic "switch" unfortunately. Try to find some nice peace with yourself is my advice, that's what I'm trying to do. May your new year find you in better spirits.

Oh my goodness I thought that I was reading me, looking in the mirror, this is exactly my family except that my father loves money and I am only 2 years older than you. I know exactly how you feel when people ask "what you doing this Christmas..." blah blah blah, ugggg I hate it. Hey if you need a friend to talk to Please PM me, you and I have so much in common, I will be thinking about you tomorrow.

HA HA, so funny.... I read some people's posts to and think it is
something I put up. I think to myself, wow, this is amazing.
I realize then that it was not me , then think . WOW, this
person is BRILLIANT!!.

like minds think great and great minds think alike.

Helo folks. (gnaws on carrots while wearing bunny
costume and says) ehhh, what's up folks.?

I have read your replies, I do dislike Christmas. My family was and is
pretty dysfunctional but parents make a real effort to feign normalcy
this season of the year. From the outside everything looks peachy.
Like an apple at a certain stage , the skin looks so red and ripe and
delicious but the majority of the meat is brown, black and rotten.

I wish to say......so I will, that I was troubled by your posts. I
sensed a hopeless and helplessness in this boat. > A , this is the
way things are, bah hum-bug.
I want to ask, what can we do to change it, or take command of
our own ship, or steer this 'bull' in the direction we want? I don't
want to just commiserate, but like >Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Highway<

Of Heartbreak Ridge, played by Clint Eastwood.... I wish to
ask you, what can we do to "Adjust, Adapt, and overcome"?

For me I gauge the person that is challenging me with
good cheer.
If I don't know them, I claim some off shoot Christian religion or
Hindu cult so I can claim I am not doing anything like looking
at lights or watching A NATIVITY SCENE celebrating
a religious iconic character in the middle of a pagan-heathen
season originally dedicated to Saturnalia.
Dec. 25th.

I wish people Happy Festivus (Seinfeld episode reference); or
Happy Saturnaliality. or I experiment with other ways to
dodge this expectation for an answer to the >proverbial< what
are you doing this holiday?

I do like this season and holiday, for the fudge, and there are
a few deserts that I will not pass up, but
everything .. the music (with exception of a few rock and roll adaptations
of the classic Christmas music of yule seasons past), I feel is
pretty creepy with barking dogs, and saccharine sweet sentimentality
and good cheer to glorify drunkard inebriation.
ewwww.

I enjoy going for walks in the residential communities, or in the parks
where the celebratory "hooplah" is at a minimum. I like changing up routine
like taking the bus places instead of driving or updating my journals and
my thoughts on my >issues< and how I can better cope with
what I just can't handle >>>YET!!

For me, spring cleaning never made sense, winter time is
PERFECT to get rid of unwanted stuff and begin celebrating
by reducing while everyone else is 'gathering' more junk.

there is a way to put a good spin on how you and I view this season
in a very unpopular way, given they are putting so much effort to
pretend we are all now so kind and loving to 'all good men' and
all that jazz and bullox