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Junior Member
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: South Dakota
Posts: 58
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Junior Member
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: South Dakota
Posts: 58
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Oh maan Looking4Hope...u are one of a multitude of peeps who are drenched in the holiday blues. It doesn't necessarily help to know that, yet at the same time, it's nice to know you're def not alone in it! The holidays have the highest suicide rate and talking about and venting your feelings can really be cathartic. One thing you might wanna try is to build a blog and keep a journal or even start a group where you can help others...helping others thru their stress, depression, anxiety can truly help YOU. At the same time, you'll begin to learn coping methods and find fellowship. I used to get very depressed & stressed over the holidays...I still do somewhat but I recently devised a method that helps me. I intellectualize my depression by determining exactly what is causing it and what I can do to change that. Once I realized that much of it stems from childhood and yearning for "the good ol days" I was better able to deal with things and I try to remember the fond memories for what they were and although I can never get those days back, the golden days of better health, days when my Grandparents were alive and the magical feelings, I won't allow myself to continue to mourn the past that always looks so much more golden & magical in retrospect. Oh, I still get down...but now I only allow myself permission to have a certain amount of time for reminscing on the painful stuff and then I make myself move on. It's very tough when we're isolated, as I am, and have too much time on my hands to think...so that's why you need to keep busy with anything you can to keep you from falling into that pit of despair. Sign petitions to help animals & humans, bake cookies, create a cassolet for your lonely elderly neighbour & dine with him or her, cheer an ill loved one with a clever song you create & sing to them, volunteer at the soup kitchen or Salvation Army, knit blankets for the shelter kittys & pups,sew tiny outfits for your fur kids,volunteer to read books aloud to be recorded for the blind, create a wall-sized mural of all your happiest holiday memories... go to Church and sing in the choir, ANYTHING that keeps you busy and frees your mind for other thoughts & feelings besides depression.You could even begin your own Holiday traditions...and call a few friends and/or family members & throw a soiree'...have them bring their fur kids in costumes and set out throw-away cameras for everyone to snap pix from their partay perspective and throw another party once you've had the pix developed, pot-luck...and everyone can pass around the photos & laugh over them!
Keep fighting back, it's your life, your mind, your heart and you rule them!!!
Hugggs!
Critter
__________________
"To know whatcha know...
and to know whatcha don't know...
is to know, Grasshopper!"
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