RA and the Holidays: Dialing Down the Stress

It's been a loooong week and somehow, the blog got neglected. Next week will be better (I hope).

One of my distractions was a post for HealthCentral about how to keep from getting too overwhelmed this season:

"The holidays are here, the time that tradition kicks in more firmly than any other time of year. That means doing everything the way you did last year and the year before that and so on. You have expectations of yourself, expectations to perform at a certain level. You always bake seven different kinds of cookies, because that's what your mother did when you grew up. The silver has to be polished and the house decorated inside and out. You can't not show up to the holiday parties, especially not the ones with a potluck, because people depend on you. There's a mountain of cards to be written and a mountain of work to be done before the end of December. Presents have to be bought and wrapped beautifully, just like you always have.

And when you have rheumatoid arthritis, it can be completely overwhelming. The pressure to do all the things we used to do can wear you down at any time of the year, but even more so during the holidays. Sometimes, it all becomes symbolic of the changes in your life and all the things you want to do, but can't. The gap between your expectations and reality seems impossible to bridge and before you know it, you're in the middle of a depression. How do you stop the spiral and get back to enjoying the holidays?"

You can read the rest here. Other HealthCentral writers are also posting about health and the holidays from a number of different perspectives. Lots of great writing!