LOOKING AFTER YOUR MENTAL HEALTH AT CHRISTMAS BY BRAD GARTLAND With an insight from Paige Gorton, Listening Lounge Lead Coordinator at Rochdale and District Mind Growing up, as with many people, Christmas was the highlight of my year. Travelling to see family, all the social events, no school, the huge Christmas dinner, not to mention the presents under the tree that I’d been waiting weeks for. It seemed like the most perfect time for everyone. Why would anyone find Christmas hard? As I’ve grown older, I’ve realised how difficult Christmas can be for everyone, and I say everyone because we’re all human. We can all get stressed, can all feel low, and can all overthink, and Christmas can be a time which heightens these emotions. No matter who you are, it’s so important to care for yourself around this time. 22 | Rochdale Style
The purpose of this article is to help you realise that you’re not alone in how you feel, as well as introducing helpful tips to benefit your mindset. Paige Gorton (Listening Lounge Lead Coordinator at Rochdale and District Mind) has also kindly provided her advice to support yourself and others during this period. To start, I’ve highlighted some of the reasons why people may find Christmas challenging and how best to overcome these challenges: When you’re told that Christmas should be one of the happiest times of your year, and you already feel low – Feeling low can be hard enough without being told you ‘should be happy.’ This can result in us putting pressure on ourselves, leading to added stress. Firstly, we have enough stresses in our life to start putting more on ourselves; remember that it’s okay not to be okay.
So, if you feel down around Christmas, this is completely normal and there are people that feel the same way. Please talk about how you feel, remember these emotions will pass and better days will come. Not having time for yourself – With so many social events planned, finding time for yourself may be a challenge and these events can become very draining. Scheduling in time for yourself is so important; I can’t stress this enough. But, when you schedule in the time, make this a priority as the biggest relationship is the one with yourself, but it’s also the one that can be most easily forgot. Once you start to make time for you, this helps to build a positive relationship with yourself, which in turn enables positive relationships to be built with other people. Remember, you can’t pour from an empty cup.
