Feeling stressed by the demands of the holiday season is common. And it’s easy to overreact. Learn how to deal positively with stress rather than responding to its potentially harmful effects.
Researchers point to three components responsible for the tension, discouragement or apathy that can characterize holiday blues for some people:
1. Psychological. The holidays can connote a variety of potentially disturbing meanings to different people. Perhaps, you struggle to accommodate conflicting family expectations. Your son’s family wants you to travel to their home this year. Your daughter expects a traditional Christmas at grandpa and grandma’s house. You may hold onto fantasies or unrealistic expectations of what the holidays can bring. Reliving memories of earlier Christmases can invoke loneliness or sadness if, for example, you’re facing your first holiday season without your spouse.
2. Financial. Added financial burden of the holidays stretches the budget, particularly if your salary is fixed.
3. Physical. The strain of shopping trips, late or irregular hours, or too much food and drink can cause fatigue, digestive complaints or general malaise.
No one is immune to or completely protected from the holiday blues. But these suggestions can help you reduce stress and make the most of the love, hope and feelings of continuity that the holidays truly offer:
• Be realistic. A little unhappiness at any season is normal. Only a small minority of people become severely depressed around the holidays. Set goals for the holiday season that you can achieve. New Year’s resolutions usually won’t solve personal or family problems.
• Plan ahead. To avoid feeling overwhelmed by what you want and feel obligated to do, take control of scheduling tasks. Develop a holiday events calendar. Schedule when to decorate your home. Assign specific days for cooking holiday foods, shopping for gifts, and visiting friends. Arrange social events and contacts with those people you want to see during the holidays. Spread out the events during the season. Discuss a schedule for family gatherings. Perhaps you can agree that the site for traditional gatherings can rotate annually.
• Set limits. Know your limitations. You can only spend so much money or give gifts to only so many people. Decide how much time you can spare to attend parties and other gatherings. Try to sleep the same number of hours as usual.
• Take advantage of social support. Research suggests that the same trigger for conflict during the holidays is also your greatest coping device. To buffer holiday stress, find a strong sense of community from your family gatherings, religious services, and by providing for those less fortunate.
All of life’s major events are potentially disrupting to your emotions. But people more often seem to worry that they won’t be able to handle an upset than actually fail to cope. Learning ways to manage your stress can help make the "magic of the season" a reality.
If you have coronary artery disease:
• Don’t overdo it. The holidays are notorious for stresses – both physical and emotional – that can lead to chest pains (angina). Any behavior that cause exertion – whether it’s carrying heavy Christmas gifts or losing your temper – will raise your blood pressure, which can trigger angina.
• Ask for help. When there are heavy Christmas decors to haul, Christmas trees to lift, or garages to clean, it’s easy to forget that lifting, pushing and shoving are best avoided by people with heart disease. Save such jobs for other younger family members or househelp.
• Skip the fat. Remember that a diet high in fat isn’t a good idea at any time. If you’re on the party circuit, keep your cholesterol and lipid levels in mind and choose wisely.
• Check out chest pain. Don’t ignore chest discomfort that appears after overindulging. It may not be simple indigestion – it could be angina. Check it out: Take a nitroglycerin tablet and contact your doctor immediately.
When to call your doctor: Other cardiac-related symptoms can pop up around holiday time. Call your physician if you experience:
• A respiratory infection or cough that becomes worse. It could turn into pneumonia.
• Episodes of chest pain or discomfort with exertion that are relieved with rest.
• Difficulty breathing with regular activities at rest.
• New restlessness and confusion.
• Constant dizziness and light-headedness.
• Nausea or poor appetite.
Go to the emergency room if you have:
• New chest pain or discomfort, especially if it is severe, unexpected, and accompanied by shortness of breath, sweating, nausea or weakness.
• A fast sustained heart rate, more than 120-150 beats per minute, especially if you’re also short of breath.
• Shortness of breath not relieved by rest.
• Sudden weakness or paralysis in your arms and legs.
• Fainting spells with loss of consciousness
• Chest pains not relieved with rest or nitroglycerin.
While physicians don’t know exactly what causes the syndrome, they suspect moderate to heavy alcohol intake. When people drink too much, they can expect an irregular discharge of electrical impulses in the upper chamber (atria) of the heart.
If you suffer these erratic episodes, you may experience palpitations, dizziness or lightheadedness. If your condition is holiday heart syndrome, the symptoms will disappear once the celebrations end or you stop drinking. But since the heart-rhythm disorder atrial fibrillation can be tied to coronary heart disease, high blood pressure or other conditions, pay attention to your symptoms. If you notice that your heart rate has changed dramatically – sped up to more than 120, slowed down to less than 60 or has become irregular – have it checked. It may just be the holiday heart syndrome, but leave the diagnosis to your doctor.
Indeed, life during the Christmas season is frenetic. The shops are crowded and traffic is snarled. But the holiday season can have plenty of benevolent effects to counteract these negatives. After all, it’s a season for spirituality, for family, and for friends.
Merry Christmas!