For many people, enduring the enforced cheer of the holiday season without getting blue is a three-month ordeal extending from November into January. Health professionals offer differing approaches to averting holiday depression.
North Kingstown, R.I., psychotherapist Lori Leyden-Rubenstein reports that many of her clients feel despondent due to unresolved personal conflicts. Rather than dreading run-ins with "difficult" relatives and others, she suggests suspending your negative emotions and feeling compassion for them instead.
"Think positive thoughts about them. They are only trying to get love just like the rest of us," says Leyden-Rubenstein, author of "The Stress Management Handbook" (Keats Pub, $14.95). More of Leyden-Rubenstein's coping strategies can be found at her Web site, More Inner Peace.
"The holiday situation can trigger all kinds of negative emotions in some people," says Marshall Sager, M.D., president-elect of the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture and the chair of the American Board of Medical Acupuncture. Sager, who practices in Pennsylvania, says he's helped patients "prevent the onset of clinical depression with acupuncture."
Compared to the many potential negative side effects of common anti-depressants, "there's no downside to acupuncture as there are no negative side effects," says Sager. Acupuncture is done by inserting ultra-thin needles at specific points on the body to help stimulate natural healing. Sometimes, heat or electrical stimulation is applied. Sager says acupuncture "helps promote the release of serotonin, a brain chemical that may help remedy depression."
If you find yourself sinking deeper into melancholy, consider getting an assessment from a mental health professional, suggests Dr. Drew Pinsky, medical director for the Department of Chemical Dependency Services at Las Encinas Hospital in Pasadena, Calif. For a confidential referral to a psychologist in your area, try the American Psychological Association's national directory.
