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Post-Holiday Blues

© Michelle Struik

The last of your holiday guests have departed. You're sick of leftover turkey and all its permutations, and the cats have gleefully half undecorated your tree. It's January and you can feel all the way down to your bones that icky feeling that leaves you dragging your feet and staying up half the night watching those infomericals. It's that time of year where people tend to feel the effects of either clinical depression or seasonal affective disorder more readily.

During the holiday season you're usually too busy to feel the "blues." Your activity levels don't permit you to feel the effects until after all the fun is over. Then it can hit you with the swiftness of an atomic bomb going off.

Then again, could it have something to do with going thru sweet's withdrawal? Most of us give ourselves permission to "graze" our way throughout the holiday season and then go into instant denial starting January 1st, leaving our bodies wondering where all the "good stuff" went!

Or, could it have something to do with the fact that we don't have any distractions from our normal lives? December is always a busy month, generally with too many things to do, places to go, people to see. After all that January can be a big letdown month, unless you have a trip to Hawaii planned!

The first item to point out to your mind is that everyone experiences some holiday letdown. Keeping yourself aware of the fact that everyone is in the same boat makes that lifeboat a little easier to handle! January/February are the months you need to pamper and baby yourselves a little.

Tips for Handling Post Holiday Blues

• Use good sleep hygiene to prevent sleep disturbance problems. Attempt to go to bed at the same time and get up at the same time each day. If you find that when you retire for the night your mind is too active to sleep when it hits the pillow, get up and do something quiet and non-stimulating and try again.

• Go for walks, even if they are small walks. Exercise can help you burn off your energy so you can sleep better at night and the sunlight may help those of you who have a problem with Seasonal Affective Disorder. Exercise in general will make you feel better, but weather permitting try to get it outside.

• Get good nutrition. During the dreary months of winter it's common to carbohydrate crave. It's OK to allow yourself some "goodies" - just don't go overboard. Knowing that it's a physiological reason why you are dying for that piece of chocolate cake might help your psychological mind understand you can't have one everyday. :)

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