Items Tagged With christmas

Let's face it - even in an un-depressed state, the holidays are stressful and often disappointing. We run ourselves ragged buying gifts, cooking, decorating and entertaining. Tempers flare as we're thrown together with relatives whom we see infrequently, and don't necessarily enjoy spending time with. Expectations are high that this season will be magical and perfect as we try to recapture the wonderment we felt as children waiting for Santa, or wait for a rush of emotion as we ponder the religious significance of Christmas and Chanukah. When those feelings don't automatically well up, we're disappointed.

I broke down in tears twice while trying to juggle visits to my ex-husband's family and my own. I wasn't even depressed - both those times I was on antidepressants and doing great. The sheer stress of the holidays was just too much for me. One year I even said to my ex-husband, "Do we really have to decorate this year?". Of course the answer was yes, and I'm glad we did. But this illustrates to me how sometimes the ideals of the holidays and the reality can be far apart.