Mental Disorders and the Holidays: Healthy Ways to Cope with Stress, Alcoholism, Depression, and Eating Disorders This Holiday Season

By Kellie McClain

The holiday season is filled with joy and happiness, spent with loved family members, peaceful quality time, and all around humbleness, gratefulness, and best wishes for everyone. So it seems as displayed by the media and popular culture. However, this is not always the case, and if you feel this description is far from accurate in terms of your personal experience, you are not alone. The holidays bring about stress and mixed emotions for everyone, but can have an especially detrimental effect on those with preexisting mental illness.

This does not mean that there is no joy to be experienced by such individuals. There are strategies which they and their families can implement to provide a supportive, healthy environment without making an already difficult disorder even harder to handle. Below are several disorders which may be directly affected by the environments brought on by the holiday season, including tips to navigate your way to a healthy, happy holiday experience.

Depressive Disorders: With the exception of bipolar disorder, depressive disorders involve a non-subsiding state of depression accompanied by depressive thoughts that occur regardless of the situation. Depressive thoughts and moods are especially prominent during this time because of the high frequency of Seasonal Effective Disorder, a depressive disorder caused by changes in seasons, during the fall and winter seasons. This can pose as a large issue during the holidays because being around family members you haven’t seen in a while might bring about suppressed feelings or disappointing memories. It may put you in a mental state similar to where you were in past negative situations.

The most important things to keep in mind in these situations is to keep as best you can to your regular schedule, spend time with those who truly love and care for you, and focus on the present day rather than the past and consistently reminding yourself who you are now and how far you’ve come. This will build up resistance to potential feelings of increased depression and allow you get happiness and enjoyment out of holiday season.

Anxiety Disorders: It is not abnormal for holiday gatherings and preparation to bring an immense amount of stress on everyone involved, since this time of year brings a condensed amount of special occasions to plan and attend in a short period of time. Individuals with generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, agoraphobia, panic disorder, or obsessive compulsive disorder may feel specifically effected by holiday related stress.

Some ways to cope with the impending feelings of stress and anxiety include planning and executing everything in moderation and to avoid having an ideal vision of the ‘perfect holiday’ because such expectations are impossible to reach. It is important to accept that there may be issues and difficult encounters within the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. For those who experience anxiety in social situations, be sure to surround yourself with those who truly care and are sensitive to your needs. Try to put as little pressure on yourself as you can with being happy and joyous throughout each holiday experience. The less pressure you are under to find enjoyment, the more likely you are to find it naturally.

Alcoholism: Holiday gatherings bring about intense temptation for those recovering from alcohol addiction and may make it especially difficult for them to stay on track with their path to recovery. If you are a recovering alcoholic who wantst to be able to avoid relapse over the holidays and still be able to spend time with family it is crucial to focus on what the holiday gatherings are truly about and why they are important to you personally. Keep your focus away from the temptation of alcohol by always staying in conversation, take part in other things you may enjoy such as helping out around the house and catching up with distant friends and family. This will help you to get the most out of your holiday experience as well as refrain from a destructive path.

Eating Disorders: For those recovering from various eating disorders, the holidays may bring a time of anxiety, depression, and relapse of the road to recovery, rather than a time of joyous family gatherings. In order to avoid straying from the road to recovery and to prevent possible conflicts, it is highly suggested to have a set plan tailored to your specific needs and concerns that you think will best help you avoid holiday related issues in regards to your disorder. You must also place strong attention to what you value most and focus highly on relationships between those with whom you are sharing the holidays. Try viewing the holiday season in a broader context in terms of what is important to you and your family, as this helps with keeping the focus away from the disorder itself.

If feelings associated with these disorders persist to an extended amount despite the implementation of the above strategies, consulting a psychologist may be helpful in the process of coping. He or she can assist with identifying the core problems you are experiencing and developing successful plans of action from a professional perspective. Keep in mind that the holidays should be seen as a time to enhance your psychological well-being and being able to overcome such intense situations will mean a large improvement with your disorder and hope for future improvement.

SOURCES - http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/life-without-anxiety/201212/10-tips-surviving-the-holidays

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/12/12/addiction-and-the-holidays/

http://blogs.psychcentral.com/weightless/2012/12/4-ways-to-navigate-the-holidays-when-you-have-an-eating-disorder/

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/eating-mindfully/201212/coping-the-stresses-the-season

http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/holiday-season.aspx

Obsession; Do we live in an Obsessed Society?

 

By Pamela O'Connor

 

Recently, we have begun to see the word obsession more and more. Obsession is used in simple sentences describing how we feel about food, shoes, or even people. It is has become overly used and replaced the word “like” entirely. No one can simply “like” something anymore; we must be obsessed with and think of it all the time, that is, until the next obsession comes along. We see celebrities talk about their obsessions, see postings of it on Facebook, hash tags on Instagram and start to feed into being obsessed with new trends or new people.

                One of the main reasons we obsess over things is our constant competitive need to be better than anyone else. When someone shows a liking for something, he or she must be obsessed with it. When this happens, this can make us feel that we not only love it more, but that we loved it first, and therefore, feel we have won in competing with others. This gives us an ego boost and makes us want to obsess even more. There is always something new, something that we want first and don’t want others to have. We are obsessed with having that designer bag, or looking like a certain celebrity so badly we become obsessed with changing everything about ourselves to resemble that person.

                Just the word obsession itself has leaked heavily into our culture and it is hard to resist. Headlines indicating how much we are obsessed with technology, tragedies, and current events further our obsession to be obsessed. Magazines show an obsession of beautiful women and expensive clothing, telling us we should be just as obsessed as they are. With so much to be obsessed about, there is no way to compare two objects. Everything is an obsession and, therefore, everything should be considered to be worthy of that much attention, even things that aren’t as perfect as we think.

                The frequency with what we use this word results in its losing the meaning and power that it used to hold. Obsession should be used to describe extreme love or desire, and originally it was meant to describe an actual mental disorder. But clearly that has changed. This word has gone from having a serious and almost always negative connotation to being used to describe how we feel about materialistic objects and relatively meaningless things. However, there are more than enough ways to describe our liking towards things in our lives, and finding new words to express that would greatly decrease our obsession with being obsessed.

What contributes to SAD-ness: A look into Seasonal Affective Disorder

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Walking out of work at 5pm into complete darkness is deflating. Where did the day go? This pitch darkness that swallows up the early evenings this time of the year may have neurobiological effects with clinical implications. Shortening of days and decreased sunlight occur in the September to November period and prolong until March and April. During this span, some individuals react negatively to these changes, feeling some form of depression, hopelessness, or lack of motivation. This effect is labeled Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

Humans need sunlight more than they think. As evidenced by the prevalence of this depressive disorder, being deprived of the sun or natural light can lead to a rise in melatonin levels and a fall in serotonin levels. 

Melatonin is known as the hormone that makes us drowsy and puts us to sleep at the right times according to our circadian rhythms. Our rhythm kicks in when we see darkness towards the end of a long day, but this rhythm is thrown off when this darkness comes a few hours earlier and there is still more left in the day. Melatonin can, therefore, increase more than usual during this time of year because of the increased darkness and shift in our rhythm. This makes us more sleepy and tired during the late afternoon and evenings.

The neurotransmitter serotonin is also linked to this disorder due to its mood stabilizing properties. It is proposed that serotonin decreases with a decrease in natural sunlight, resulting in more fluctuating moods during this time of darkness. Being surrounded by more and more darkness can certainly be a downer, so much so that it can chemically alter one's mood to a point of dysfunction.


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As for who is commonly inflicted, SAD is found to be very prevalent in northern hemispheric territories. To be expected, the shorter days hit the northern hemisphere the hardest come fall. The dwindling sunlight hurts those above the equator with more intense SAD risk factors.

Solutions for treating or preventing this mood disorder are fairly unique. While psychoactive medication, in the form of anti-depressants, may alleviate the biological maladies, light therapy can be used to improve an individual's light exposure. Although it is not natural light, the use of a light box can emit bright rays and expose an individual to a brighter room or atmosphere, effectively addressing his or her troubles with the dominating natural darkness. Also, for less severe cases, a winter time vacation to an appropriate, perhaps tropical, location can provide a much needed break from the harsh seasonal changes. 

-Ryan Scanlon

Works Used:

http://whatispsychology.net/seasonal-affective-disorder-statistics-and-facts/

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/natural-standard/201201/feeling-sad-season

Factors That Affect a Child’s Adjustment to Divorce

As difficult as a divorce may be for the people involved, there is no denying that if there are children involved in these situations, they will be affected as well. For some children who have to live through a parental divorce, it is a very difficult and trying time in their life but other children are not as severely affected. These differences may be due the different factors that affect how a child adjusts to divorce which are: 

• Severity of Conflict: If there is constant fighting and arguing in front of a child, this child is more likely to have a hard time dealing with divorce. Many times parents make their child feel like they are stuck in the middle and try to take sides. None of this helps.  It is better if parents try to keep their fighting away from the child and not involve them.
• Parents’ adjustment: The way that a child’s parents are themselves dealing with and adjusting to the divorce will influence how that child adjusts to the divorce as well. If parents are having a hard time dealing with the divorce and seem to have a hostile outlook, their children will most likely pick up on that attitude as well. Children look to their parents for ways in which they should react. If parents are too busy fighting with each other instead of trying to build their relationship with their children and build stability in their home, the child may end up confused.
• Information the child knows about the divorce: It is important that the child is not completely in the dark about the divorce but it’s also important that they not be aware of confusing, negative information. If they are living through this divorce with their parents, they should know what is going on but not know too much. Depending on the child’s age, they may not be able to comprehend all aspects of the divorce. In order to not confuse them, it is better to only provide them with the most important information such as how it may affect them and their living situation. If children are getting no information about what is going on, it is likely they may begin to make assumptions and could perhaps start to blame themselves.
• Level of Social Support: Having people around them to talk to and help through such a difficult time is very important to children dealing with divorce. Parents should encourage that the child remains close with both sides of the family. It may be difficult for parents to help their child as they are dealing with stress of their own but it is important that they still try to find time to provide emotional support for their children.

       If a parent sees that their child continues to struggle with the effects of divorce, seeking therapy may be helpful. A therapist will be able to help the child work through their emotions and feelings about the divorce.

By: Stephanie Lopez

Source:  http://www.extension.purdue.edu/providerparent/family-child%20relationships/EffectDivorce.htm

Breaking Bad Habits: A Psychological Viewpoint

By Kellie McClain

                Preventing the occurrence of unwanted habits and behaviors can pose as extremely stressful and frustrating, especially if the habit is deeply embedded into an individual’s routine. The main problem that those with bad habits experience when attempting to prevent the behavior is discouragement due to increase resistance. Most often, someone will take action toward preventing the behavior and make substantial progress, but once prevention reaches its peak difficulty, that individual then gives up and loses any progress that was made.

                Tackling this issue from a psychological perspective could help individuals understand how the process of habit breaking works, which will give them more knowledge and motivation when encountering difficulties.  From a psychological view, habit forming occurs under a learning process knowing as conditioning. An individual learns to perform a specific behavior based on the rewards that are received by that behavior. These rewards then make the behavior stronger and turn it into a habit. These habits can only be broken through extinction, which is the process through which a conditioned response decreases or is eliminated completely.

                Through the process of extinction, one will experience increased frustration and difficulty with preventing the behavior. At the peak of this frustration, extinction bursts, which are known as explosions of unwanted behavior, are often displayed by the individual. It is at this point that many individuals get discouraged and give up. However extinction bursts are often followed by complete extinction of the behavior, which means the habit has been successfully broken.

                The take home message for breaking bad habits is to keep in mind the mental process that occur during extinction and to have faith that this process will lead to eventual success. Next time you are trying to rid of an unwanted habit and encourage significant difficulty and frustration, remember that this only means that you are getting closer to reaching your goal.

SOURCE: http://www.psychologytoday.com/collections/201311/putting-thoughts-action/bursting-through-bad-habits

Teenage Violence; Raising Awareness for Teen Dating Violence

By Kellie McClain

                Conversations about strangers, bullying, drug use, and sex are commonly had between a teenager and their parent or guardian because a majority of parents know how important it is to discuss these topics. What most often is overlooked, however, is dating violence among teens. Parents of teenagers are normally shocked to hear that one in three teens have been victims of dating violence or have been affected by abusive relationships. What is most unfortunate is that this information is all too often not discovered until after their teen experiences such violent abuse and harrowing effects. Violence occurring in teenage romantic relationship is a topic that unfortunately most individuals are not fully aware of, especially in terms of its severity and frequency.

                Teen dating violence has become an unheard and unspoken epidemic that can occur right in front of parents. It often continues to go un-intervened if the parent lacks awareness. Teens are unlikely stop the abusive situation themselves since most teens are not educated enough on the topic to take the situation seriously. The most common flaw in the __ about teenage dating violence is that the victim is to blame. This was the condition in the recent polls and presentations performed by the Boston Public Health Commission. If teens continue to retain this view, they will be less likely to report abuse, seek help from others, or take any action themselves to prevent further violence. In addition, teenagers are in stages of development in which they do not have a concrete sense of self and, therefore, do not have a good grasp on what create and define a healthy relationship. Parents are also guilty of flawed viewpoints on abusive relationships, often excusing excessive control as “puppy love” and failing to see the severity of the situation.

                If susceptible individuals wish to see any change in these statistics, it is crucial that parents and teens become conscious and fully knowledgeable about the root causes of teen dating violence and how to manage and prevent it. This lack of awareness must be addressed at multiple levels including school districts, parents, and peers through focus groups, school presentations, pediatric screenings, media coverage, the spread of “National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month.” This month dedicated to awareness of teen dating violence was recently passed by congress and can be implemented along with other strategies exhibited by activists groups as well as by citizens at the local and individual level. Since these acts of violence occur most commonly with those who the victim knows, it is essential that teens be aware of the warning signs of abuse and feel comfortable with reaching out to those they trust.

SOURCE: http://www.apa.org/monitor/2010/03/epidemic.aspx

Deindividuation: Masking Mischief on Halloween

http://www.fondecrans.be/fond/halloween/halloween003.jpg

As it is said, there is strength in numbers. Those who find themselves in a group hold more power than if they were alone. Mischief designates itself to one night a year in the United States. That night, commonly, is adjacent with the candy grubbing, mystical holiday known as Halloween. Why is "mischief night" affiliated with Halloween? Why not Easter? Or Columbus Day? According to Ed Diener and his application of de-individuation, Halloween offers us the opportunity to shake free of our identity, an identity that keeps us responsible for our actions.

De-individuation means exactly what it sounds like: "de-individual." The reason late October may be a more susceptible time for mischief to ensue or for childish vandalism to occur is because of this loss of individualism. As Diener says, putting on a mask, fitting into a costume, or even pulling your hood up all contribute to your loss of identity, which in turn contributes to your uninhibited, or mischievous, behavior. A mere costume leads to an often unconscious "loss of self-observation and self evaluation, with a lowered concern for social evaluation." This idea makes one "indistinguishable" from the environment and therefore more inclined to act out of moral character. 

Halloween also feeds de-individuation through its group dynamic: children and adolescents celebrate Halloween in groups. Those who are out and about on October 31st are most likely in a group, a group that shares the aim of de-individualizing. As Diener also points out, being in a group increases one's likeliness to engage in uninhibited behavior because of the anonymity one holds while in a group. This "mob mentality," where one unconsciously frees themselves from moral responsibility within a group, is supported further by Halloween. This allows even more "mischief."   

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Diener's 1970's experiment is the root of these claims. Twenty-seven houses were selected as deceptive laboratories on Halloween in order to observe children and their morality in relation to individuation and group settings. The researchers formed categories of "children subjects" depending on if children were in a group or alone and if they were asked their names at the door or kept anonymous. The adult that would answer the door would greet the trick-or-treaters and ask them to take only one piece of candy. The adult would then walk back into the house, leaving the children alone with this sugar-fueled moral dilemma. Should we obey and take only one piece? Or should I take a handful and run?

The results showed that the four different categories of children differed, depending on if their identity was revealed and if they were in a group. The category least likely to commit this Halloween sin was the children who arrived at the house by themselves and were then asked their name. This enhances the child's individualism to the adult, not only by giving his or her name, but by eliminating all other possible culprits he could theoretically hide behind. The category most likely, at about 60%, to cheat the Halloween system and take more candy against the adult's will was the children who were in a group and were not asked their name. More than half the time, with their identities protected through anonymity and group mentality, children acted uninhibited and broke the rules. 

Individuality grants us responsibility, which is valuable in most instances, but not when you're up to no good. Group mischief provokes and protects, a harmful combination. 

-Ryan Scanlon


Works Used:

http://proteus.brown.edu/13things/7452

http://youarenotsosmart.com/2011/02/10/deindividuation/
(also a book ^^^)