Fibromyalgia: Coping with The Holidays
The approaching holiday season, from now until after the new year, can be a time of anticipation and joy: it can also be a time filled with physical/mental stress and depression. Much of the outcome depends on our own expectations and the demands we place on ourselves.
I have always had an emotionally difficult time coping with the "holidays". Activities that others seemed to enjoy somehow left me feeling empty and blue. I've never been able to get into the "holiday spirit", and just relax and enjoy myself. I'm still not really sure why this always happens to me; I just know that it does. I suspect that one of the reasons is that my expectations usually exceed the reality of what is.
I remember one time many years ago, on Christmas Eve, when I found myself at the hospital emergency-room, unable to stop crying, and feeling like the top of my head was going to explode. The ER doctor diagnosed me with depression, and said that I was obviously stressed out. No kidding! This pattern of becoming depressed, and stressed out, over the holidays has become a vicious cycle that I cannot seem to break. This year I have vowed it will be different: This year my expectations will be based on reality - not on visions of sugar plums dancing in my head.
Coping with fibromyalgia is challenging during the best of times - during the holidays it can be down right frustrating. Our minds want to accomplish what our bodies are simply not capable of doing any more. Therefore, we need to change our outlook by lowering our expectations and reducing the demands on our energy and time - focus on what we can do rather than what we cannot. Our goal should be to relax and enjoy the holidays: not to stress ourselves mentally and physically to the point of exhaustion and despair.
Some tips that I hope you will find helpful for surviving the holidays:
Plan ahead
Whether it is planning your holiday menu, or shopping for gifts - start early. If you simply cannot get out of cooking the holiday meal, or this is a tradition you love, then do try to make it as easy on yourself as possible. Several quick, easy recipes, provided by Fibro Friends' members can be found here. Ask family members for help. Assigning them each something to do will lighten the load on yourself. I've found that preparing as much of the meal ahead of time as possible, and doing a little each day, makes the whole process fairly painless. If you are having many
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