Stressed out?
Your Christmas shopping list continues to grow. You’ve checked your bank balance, and it’s $1,000 lower than you thought. And you received invitations for holiday parties from your boss and from your spouse’s boss both for the same night.
You’re stressed, and you’re not alone.
This time of year can be difficult for people, under the best of circumstances. Trying to create the “perfect” holiday season is unrealistic, according to mental health professionals.
In addition, the 2001 holiday season is overshadowed by international events, said Ron Bottorff, a social worker with Shane M. Jones and Associates in Lawrence.
And, too, it’s fine for people to say they don’t feel like celebrating this year.
“It’s OK to say, ‘I’m feeling really stressed about Christmas,” Bottorff said.
Because of the September air strikes against the United States by terrorists, some people may find it more difficult to kick up the holiday spirit while others will truly treasure Christmas 2001.
“It could go both ways, and it depends on the individual and how they’re dealing with this September 11 issue,” Bottorff said.
Another contributor to stress this year is the shaky U.S. economy. And Kate Werring, clinical director for the Guidance Center mental health center, believes that’s affecting people.
“The specter of layoffs, even if they haven’t occurred yet is pretty unsettling for people,” she said. “There’s a feeling of not knowing where we’re heading. I think people are worried about their livelihood and, certainly, worried as well about what is happening to the world and how do we make sense out of the things that are happening to us and how to feel hopeful for the future.”
Werring has worked for more than 18 years at the Guidance Center, which serves clients in Leavenworth, Atchison and Jefferson counties. She said she believes people are having difficulty maintaining hope in a time of world unrest.
“People just go back and forth between trying to maintain their lives and hearing things or seeing things on the television,” she said.
Werring and Bottorff said it is important to turn to what provides comfort family, friends, church.
“The first thing I think of is to turn to your spiritual roots, whether it’s an organized religion or another means or practice that has given you comfort in the past when something difficult happened,” Werring said.
“And as corny as it sounds, doing good things for other people is just a good thing to do. It helps us get outside ourselves a little bit. It’s a way to reaffirm there is the possibility of good. If people have ordinarily done a little of that but not a lot during the holidays, they may want to think about doing more.”
This Christmas will be unsettling for some people, Werring said. And that’s certainly understandable.
“I think this is such a life change for all of us that we don’t know how it will change how we think and feel a year from now,” she said.