{"id":55,"date":"2017-12-11T16:00:30","date_gmt":"2017-12-11T16:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/mentalnote\/?p=55"},"modified":"2017-12-11T18:50:32","modified_gmt":"2017-12-11T18:50:32","slug":"mental-health-and-the-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/mentalnote\/2017\/12\/11\/mental-health-and-the-holidays\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental Health and the Holidays"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The holidays are fast approaching. For some of us, that means it\u2019s time to be around family. For others, it\u2019s a time of solitude. Then there are those of us \u201cin-between\u201d folks who are with our family but don\u2019t quite feel like we belong or there are certain key family members missing from our lives. Long story short: holidays are rough, especially for people with mental illness.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I mentioned in my personal Mental Note<\/a>, my mother passed away when I was 15. Holidays have never been the same since. My family has always been separated, as my parents were divorced prior to my mother\u2019s passing, but it has felt more and more divided as the years have gone by. I still go to these family functions, but I don\u2019t really belong there. I go, do my family duty of dinner and small talk, and then leave to seek out my own holiday coping mechanisms. <\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve found other friends who experience similar feelings on large holidays, or just friends that have shorter holiday festivities. We\u2019ll chat, play video games, or, if they\u2019re local (which is rare), we\u2019ll get together and have second dinner\/dessert. <\/span><\/p>\n

For those of us suffering from mental health issues, the holidays can bring another profound feeling of isolation. We might feel angry, like we don\u2019t belong with the happiness and warmth that other people are experiencing. Still others might feel isolated even in a room with our own family, especially if our families haven\u2019t been supportive of our struggles. There is still a stigma around mental illness that is hard for some people to understand.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re feeling isolated from friends and family \u2014 it\u2019s okay. We\u2019re in this together and you\u2019re not alone in these feelings. We feel like this all year round, but once the holidays roll around we\u2019re subjected to seeing more and more people getting together and being merry. This brings out many emotions. Loneliness, sadness, regret\u2026 The list goes on, but we can cope together. The Judge Program has acted for a second family for many us us, myself included, and I have been able to find other friends to commiserate with on many holiday occasions in the past. Then we gather together and enjoy each other\u2019s company. While you might not be able to physically be in the same room, there are wonderful options available thanks to the Internet. Hop into Discord and play some Jackbox games, or whatever works for you. You can be alone without being alone these days.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reach out to some friends online and see what their plans are. Some people host holidays for friends and don\u2019t travel to be with their family. Others would be more than happy to either bring you along, or check up on you after their festivities. <\/span><\/p>\n

Holidays can be hard, but we can get through them together. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The holidays are fast approaching. For some of us, that means it\u2019s time to be around family. For others, it\u2019s a time of solitude. Then there are those of us \u201cin-between\u201d folks who are with our family but don\u2019t quite feel like we belong or there are certain key family members missing from our lives. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":295,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8,10,9],"tags":[3,11,7],"language":[],"class_list":["post-55","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abby-kraycar","category-edited-by-elliot-raff","category-support-structures","tag-abby-kraycar","tag-edited-by-elliot-raff","tag-support-structures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/mentalnote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/mentalnote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/mentalnote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/mentalnote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/295"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/mentalnote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/mentalnote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/mentalnote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions\/58"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/mentalnote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/mentalnote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/mentalnote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/mentalnote\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}