Black Friday has a different meaning for those of us who walk a black dog. With that in mind and because the holidays often mean dealing with people we don’t always get along with, here’s some links that may help you this holiday season.
15 Simple Ways to Overcome Anger
How to Ease Depression With Relaxation Techniques
How to Sidestep Depression During the Holidays
How to deal with difficult relatives.
A simple exercise called Be Still and Know from patriot outreach, a web site dedicated to helping our military men and women. Read through the first article titled My Testimonial, An Open Cry and see if you can’t relate to what they’re talking about.
Two good talks from TED.com
Dan Gilbert: Why are we happy? Why aren’t we happy?
Sherwin Nuland: My history of electroshock therapy
Serenity is yours. Right here, right now. Just don’t use it while driving or operating heavy machinery.
It was this time of the year just 3 years ago that my best friend was fighting for his life with cancer. It had started in his colon and spread to his liver. He called me that April to tell me about it and I flew up right away to visit. It was an understandably emotional visit and it brought us much closer together.
After that visit we talked on the phone several times a week. Sometimes he’d call me while I was at work and he was receiving chemo-therapy. Wherever he was, whatever he was doing, Mike knew he could call me and pour his heart out and I would listen.
Last Sunday my sister, brother-in-law and I ate an early Thanksgiving dinner with our dad at the home where he lives. The home does this for all the holidays. They will do it a week or two before the actual holiday so that it’s easier on family (especially those who live out of town) to come and celebrate.
All of the food is homemade and the staff waits on you like you were in a fine restaurant. Kitty, the director of the home, is a really nice woman who is all about taking care of the residents. She involves the residents in craft projects like making Thanksgiving day cards that they mail out to family inviting them to dinner.
Driving west the other night around 5:30 and it was already getting dark. It’s that time of year again. Falling back may make it lighter earlier in the day but by the time I get off work and actually have time to get out and exercise, it’s already getting dark. The extra hour of sleep we get when we turn the clocks back comes with a price.
The late Fall and early Winter are difficult times to get a lot of sunlight. If you have trouble with the blues, you probably have problems sleeping which in turn makes you tired during the day, which makes your depression deepen . . . which disturbs your sleep even more . . . and on and on.
This is my brother-in-law’s black dog. He’s a really sweet lab but is an ‘outdoor’ dog. He stays outside all the time. He has a pen, a doghouse and a really nice dog bed in the garage, but he’s never allowed in. He knows he can’t go inside so when there’s an open door the most he’ll do is poke his head inside and look at you with sad, heart melting eyes.
He’s never known anything but the great outdoors. Despite feeling bad for him when he sticks his old face inside and looks at the little Cairn terrier who gets to come and go at will, I can’t help but think how this is what TLC does for the black dog of depression.
Seeing a counselor is a big step on the road to wellness. When I first decided that seeing a counselor was something I should try, it was like feeling my way in the dark. I didn’t know why I should go or how it worked, how to choose one, how much it cost, etc.
