Surviving the Holidays: Tips for Staying Healthy and Sober

Why is the holiday season an especially tricky time? We are told relentlessly on television, at the movies, at our workplace and at school that this time of year is the most fun, spiritual, exciting, intimate, and joyful time of the year.

In reality, however, for many people it can be a difficult time, and trigger feelings of depression and anxiety as well as powerful urges to escape, use substances, and/or act out. Some of the reasons for this are:

1. Our actual family experience does not match the “ideal” happy family that we are expected to have. Perhaps we don’t spend this time with our family or don’t want to, or when we do it is painful or brings up old, unhappy, or even traumatic memories.
2. We feel tremendous pressure to create the perfect experience, purchase the perfect gifts, be the perfect host, etc, leading to a perpetual feeling of “falling short” and codependency.
3. We don’t have the money this year to buy what we would like to be able to give.
4. We are invited to parties at work and through family and friends that we are expected to attend even if we don’t want to.
5. We feel “something is missing” or “something is wrong with me” if we are alone.
6. There is a tremendous cultural increase in…