It is easy to get overwhelmed by the holiday season, especially when you are in recovery and trying to remain sober. However, there are many things that you can do to mentally and emotionally prepare yourself for the challenge of staying sober! Just remember to give yourself grace, use your sober safety tools, have a sober safety plan in place and remember to have fun.
7 Tips to Navigate Your Eating Disorder During the Holiday Season
The holiday season for many with an ED or in ED recovery can feel like the superbowl of negative thoughts and body image, anxiety, decreased self-esteem and even sadness. Which is why it feels impossible to try to keep your eating disorder from controlling your holiday season. It can feel easier to let the eating disorder voice win because it is so exhausting to keep your ED in check. And as exhausting as it is, you can still support yourself through the holiday season with the list of tips below.
Managing Holiday Anxiety
What if ‘the most wonderful time of year’ brings nothing but holiday anxiety? What if you feel overwhelmed and stressed during this season, rather than joyous like society tells us? And what if you don’t feel or want to be that cheerful this year? Well, I am here to tell you that this is completely natural.
Honoring Domestic Violence Awareness Month
Domestic Violence is an epidemic that spreads violence throughout communities and family units across the nation. Any individual can be subject to an abusive relationship, regardless of nationality, race, gender, sexuality, socio-economic status, age, or religion. The violence that an individual experiences within a relationship typically coexists with controlling behaviors and emotionally abusive patterns which exposes a pattern of dominance and control.
Celebrating World Mental Health Day
While we may be more equipped to manage our mental health at different times in our life, mental health problems can become overwhelming and all-encompassing. Individuals who struggle with mental health often feel alone or like a burden to individuals in their life. Which is why many will keep their mental health in the shadows. However, mental health is something that is becoming more normalized to discuss. Which is a big part in how and why we have and should celebrate World Mental Health Day!
Checking In, Turning the Page into 2022 by Heather Nicholson, MS, LPC
There can be a subtle pressure to experience joy through the holidays which unfolds straight into hope and action for the new year, without much room to acknowledge other important feelings which may have been stirred in the previous weeks, months, and year. Feelings like confusion, anger, frustration, pain, dread, fatigue, and fear are also part of our emotional tapestry. And, turning the page into 2022 has brought with it the added stress and uncertainties of a third year in a global pandemic.