Lori Calabrese, MD

Author: Lori Calabrese, M.D.

How Depression and Antidepressant Drugs Work

Date: May 18, 2016

Source: Penn State

Summary: New research demonstrates the effectiveness of ketamine to treat depression in a mouse model of the disease. The brings together two hypotheses: 1) that depression results from deficits in GABA signaling and 2) that depression results from deficits in glutamate signaling. It shows that the depression-like behavior in the research mice results from the reduction of both GABA and glutamate, and importantly, that both can be restored with a single dose of ketamine.

[button url=”https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160518165254.htm”]Read Full Article Here[/button]

December 29, 2016
Intravenous Ketamine May Rapidly Reduce Suicidal Thinking in Depressed Patients

Date: May 10, 2016

Source: Massachusetts General Hospital

Summary: Repeat ketamine infusions decreased — and for some, eliminated — suicidal thoughts in outpatients with treatment-resistant depression, report investigators.

[button url=”https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160510134545.htm”]Read the Full Article Here[/button]

December 29, 2016
From Drug of Abuse to a Glimpse Into Depression

Date: May 18, 2016

Source: American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS)

Summary: Ketamine, a synthetic analogue of PCP, has recently taken the spotlight as a novel, fast-acting antidepressant. However, experts say that more research on usage of ketamine as an antidepressant is needed.

[button url=”https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160518153407.htm”]Read Full Article Here[/button]

December 29, 2016
Ketamine Lifts Depression via a Byproduct of its Metabolism

Date: May 4, 2016

Source: NIH/National Institute of Mental Health

Summary: A chemical byproduct, or metabolite, created as the body breaks down ketamine likely holds the secret to its rapid antidepressant action. This metabolite singularly reversed depression-like behaviors in mice without triggering any of the anesthetic, dissociative, or addictive side effects associated with ketamine. The discovery fundamentally changes scientists’ understanding of how this rapid antidepressant mechanism works and holds promise for improved treatments.

[button url=”https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160504141131.htm”]Read Full Article Here[/button]

December 29, 2016
The Science of Happiness: What You Can Do to Achieve It

The science of happiness is rather new as a science, but the pursuit of happiness is something we’re all familiar with. Everybody searches for happiness all through life. In fact, it’s ranked right up there with food and water since the days of cave men. As long as man has lived on earth, he’s sought ways to be happy. Even the founding fathers, while framing US democracy, highlighted their core principle as the fundamental human desire for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

In recent years, psychologists, neuroscientists, and economists have been exploring the science of happiness. What is happiness? What causes it? Does something prevent it? Can it be created or is it dependent on circumstances? The science of happiness is a young science, but is helping us learn how to acquire this important element of life for ourselves.

Researchers who combine their data learn more than ever before about the answers to these questions. For instance, they’ve learned without question that wealth isn’t the source of happiness, any more than health, or fame, or power. But they’ve learned even more than that…

Science of Happiness researchers also learned there’s a long list of resources that do help us actually cultivate our own happiness, and contribute to it in the lives of others.

The idea that the fulfillment of our dreams will create happiness has already been discredited through documented studies. Landmark events like winning the lottery, or finishing college, or getting married–which most people think would bring happiness–have been shown to only bring it for a short time… as little as an average of three months!!

Surprisingly, heartbreaking experiences have a similar impact. People who experience job loss, romantic breakup, death of a loved one, or even blindness suffer the worst of it at first — and within three months are beginning to find reasons for happiness in their new readjusted life. They learn about new things to enjoy in their lives they wouldn’t have known existed without this jarring change.

In fact, research has established that most people are more resilient than they think they are. They begin looking for the silver linings in life no matter what happens. And they’re surprised to find that they do.

Whether good or bad, happy or sad, experiences from outside ourselves have a temporary impact…but lasting happiness seems to come from within.

So, is it possible to create happiness for yourself, or are you limited to waiting for happiness or hoping you’ll feel it or find it?

The studies conducted by “happiness scientists” and “positive psychologists” have demonstrated that you have within yourself the ability to create your own happiness. To actually “synthesize” it. And the happiness you gain from happy circumstances is only one of the types of happiness available to you.

You might ask whether the happiness you synthesize even counts, or if it’s a false form of something that must be genuine to be of value. The collective answer is a resounding NO, it’s not false, but actually very real. If you feel it, it IS real and it’s yours. And knowing how to create it for yourself means that you’re not a slave to circumstances. But you’re definitely independent to enjoy your life your way and overcome whatever difficulties come along.

So How?? How Can You Make Your Own Happiness?

The answers may surprise you. Some may seem obvious, like exercise and getting plenty of rest. But others may seem counter-intuitive, like giving away rather than getting what you want. See what you think as you read through the answers below:

1. Build Relationships

Build strong and healthy relationships – Relationships play a huge role in your access to happiness. The ones where you openly and honestly express your heart are the most powerful single element in anyone’s level of happiness. A friend with whom you can share your fears, successes, losses, and hopes and know you’re accepted provides a nourishment nothing else can rival.

Of course, for that relationship to be fully functional, your friend or partner needs to feel the same safety and support with you. Relationships where you both express genuine interest in each other’s life and concerns, providing encouragement and support, are enriching and create positive feelings…like happiness.

2. Show Kindness

Random acts of kindness toward others you know and those you don’t know, bring an overall sense of fulfillment and peace. Volunteering or caring for loved ones consistently brings joy, happiness, and reduces depression.

3. Get Regular Exercise

Exercise and physical movement improves emotional well-being and lowers the occurrence of depression.

The Cochrane Review, that highly prominent medical review with huge influence in the global medical community, published a landmark review and analysis of over 20 studies on the link between exercise and depression. It drew a major conclusion: exercise has a “large clinical impact” on depression.

Game-changing discoveries like the gut-brain axis and the link between large sugar consumption and depression also shows the impact of physical well-being and health on emotions.

4. Embrace Your Flow

Finding Your “Flow” comes through being deeply involved in working to reach a certain goal, or engaging in a challenging activity that’s stretching but well-matched to your skills. It’s a joyful state, even exhilarating at times, and creates its own internal motivation that cycles with the rewards and joy it produces.

5. Nurture Spiritual Engagement and Deeper Meaning

Nurturing spiritual engagement and deeper meaning in life was found to be closely connected to happiness. People who are part of a spiritual community and regularly participate in spiritual activities have a higher level of happiness than those who aren’t. Through spiritual development, deeper levels of meaning and fulfillment can be discovered and assimilated.

6. Develop Your Strengths and Virtues

Identify, develop, and gain confidence in your strengths and virtues. An expert in the field of Positive Psychology, Martin Seligman, conducted studies that confirmed that the happiest people are the ones who know their strengths and virtues, and use them to further goals greater than themselves.

Strengths can be things like persistence, tenacity, and analytical thinking. Virtues can be qualities like compassion, integrity, and tolerance. Using your best traits to help others is a great generator of happiness.

7. Cultivate Optimism and Gratitude

Optimism and gratitude are two mindset choices that draw happy feelings like a magnet. People with a grateful mindset have been the focus of numerous studies that found these people have a higher sense of belonging, higher sense of optimism, happy positive thoughts, and lower occurrence of depression, anxiety, and stress than those who don’t.

Choose an “attitude of gratitude” in the various moments of the day. Watch for the silver lining. Find someone to whom you offer a helping hand or some kindness as you follow your routine. These will form the foundation for an underlying joy that makes life worth living.

The Happiness Scientists learn more all the time about the key to happiness. It centers on many small moments of joy and reward throughout the day that accumulate to create the happiness we all seek. Surprising as it may be, it’s not what you get…it’s what you give… It’s not the big victories or bright spots that make a life happy…but the hundreds of little ones that form the fabric of happiness in your life.

Start Today and Build a Year of Happiness

Learning to recognize these opportunities and snatch them at a moment’s notice is a skill we train ourselves to use with keen attention and alertness. The best approach is to just start today to build an arsenal of happiness moments so that by this time next year you’re outlook on life has dramatically improved. Be your own Science of Happiness researcher.

If you feel too listless to follow these guidelines, we might need to talk about alternative therapies. Therapies that can empower you to take steps like the ones we talk about here. Schedule an appointment for a thorough evaluation, and we’ll take it one step at a time.

To your emerging best self,

Lori Calabrese, MD

December 28, 2016
Resilience: Adapting To Emerge as Your Best Self

Do you know someone who can’t seem to go through difficulty without collapsing emotionally? Whether the difficulty is a natural disaster, a broken relationship, or a financial loss…

Some people can weather difficult storms with strength and resilience. Others become grief-stricken and shut down every time something disappointing happens. Why is that?

So what is resilience, anyway?

Resilience is the ability to absorb and then find a healthy way to adapt to what you’re faced with.

Attitude: Resilient or Victimized?

A key to understanding and developing resilience, is attitude. Or better said, perception. Those who look for ways to learn and grow in each difficulty presented to them, are the ones who are actively growing a bumper crop of resilience. It’s how you perceive the difficulty you face that makes the difference.

Do you meet challenges on your own terms, believing the outcome is based on who you are and how you respond?

Or…do you feel victimized by storms, fold up and lick your wounds when times are tough? Do you tend to see the glass half empty? If so, you may have a difficult time recovering from an adverse situation or experience.

Resilience Takes Practice

Anyone who goes through life with a proverbial halo over his head, never challenged, always rewarded, may or may not have the resilience he needs to draw from when times are tough. Until you face hardship or difficulty, you never know how you’ll respond to it.

On the other hand, we also know we can train ourselves to be less resilient. if you’ve had challenges every step of the way, you have the best opportunity for displaying resilience, or else learning how to develop it. Because it’s in the presence of the storm that resilience is developed.

Psychologists who conducted studies of children in extremely trying circumstances learned how they either succumbed to or surmounted their situation. Among the children, about 2/3 succumbed to their circumstances, losing their belief in themselves, and their hope for future achievements.

But about 1/3 responded to their dire circumstances with determination and a belief that they were in control, that their outcome would be the result of their own decisions and actions.

What they concluded is that the children who rose above their circumstances, who piloted their own journey through their personal storms, were those who did not view their difficulties as traumatic, but as just another difficulty to be overcome.

Trauma is How You Perceive It

Only those who view difficulty as traumatic are, in fact, traumatized.

What’s more, anyone can learn to view the difficulties they face in life in a resilient way. By learning to view an emotionally-charged experience as less emotional, and more factual, you can remove the traumatic association of it. Then, train your emotions to view it with less pain. By doing this, you can learn to regulate your emotions, and strengthen your resilience.

On the other hand, we also know we can train ourselves to be less resilient. By exaggerating the emotional feelings tied to an experience, by thinking about it, talking about it, meditating on it, we can convince ourselves we’ve been traumatized. And that traumatized orientation will continue to follow us through life unless we set about to change it. We don’t even realize we’re doing this to ourselves.

When you perceive a difficult situation as one that’s threatening, your own ability to face it and overcome it drains away. Conversely, view it as a challenge to be overcome, and your emotions remain strong and agile, adapting as you go and building inner strength along the way.

This is what those resilient children discovered on their own.

Some of them may have been fortunate to find a friend or relative who gave them support, as studies have shown that the most resilient of people are those who are closely connected to mentor or peer group support.

David Brooks’ work on resilience in children has shown that the one thing that is found is children who develop resilience is the presence of a charismatic adult in the life of that child.

Studies of military groups found those units with the strongest peer support and highest morale were the most adaptive in stress situations such as battle.

Flexibility

Flexibility is a core value for resilience. The ability to adapt to circumstances as you navigate through them, gives you the power to emerge successful.

In the award-winning movie, Pursuit of Happyness, Chris Gardner (played by Will Smith) faced ever-increasing obstacles and hardships that would have crushed many to despair, as he sought a better life for himself and his son. But his flexibility in the face of those hardships, and his stubborn tenacity in holding to his belief he would overcome them was the reason he did.

In one scene, he locked himself and his son in a public restroom to sleep in safety, then woke the next morning to continue his quest to get the career that would change his and his son’s destiny.

For some, that one experience alone would have been seen as traumatic. And hope would have drained away. But for Chris, it was a means to accomplish what he had to do to achieve what he wanted to achieve. It was a bump on the road to success.

Resilience is Learned

And, remember, you can learn to adapt, to change the way you see the challenges and stressors, every day. Take a moment to look at your circumstances. Are they as damaging as you tell yourself they are? Can you look at them with an objective view and see ways to adapt your attitude to move forward? If you can, you’re building your own crop of resilience, and paving the road to your own success. There’s no shame in realizing you have invited a traumatized view of an experience. We’ve all done it. The key is to change to become a happier person.

You really are the captain of your fate in this life, as you strengthen your skill to ride the ups and downs in life that surround you.

Look for ways to develop resilience in your own life daily. The opportunities are all around you. And if you don’t see where to start, you may benefit from our innovative approach and advanced psychiatric services, such as TMS or IV Ketamine treatment.

Contact us and let’s discuss your options. You really can feel better and live a rewarding life.

To the growth of your best self,

Lori Calabrese, MD

December 22, 2016
How Curcumin Relieves Depression

In the search for alternatives to help those patients who suffer from treatment-resistant depression, or who can’t tolerate the side effects of some antidepressant medications, a shining star rises — curcumin.

Curcumin is the potent anti-inflammatory ingredient found in the spice turmeric. The wonderful aromatic spice that makes mustard and curry yellow, turmeric is a delicious ingredient used in Indian and other eastern foods. Its flavorful qualities are second only to its healing characteristics.

Curcumin Protects Almost Every Part of Your Body

As a result, it provides anti-inflammatory benefits to nearly every part of the body. A single curcumin molecule possesses anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, chemotherapeutic, anti-thrombotic, anti-hepatotoxic, antiparasitic, anti-diabetic, anti-psoriasis, and wound healing properties…but that just scratches the surface.

Today though, we’re focused on how it can help depression. And that brings into focus its neuroprotective properties…and…that it penetrates the blood-brain barrier carrying its healing properties to the brain. It’s also been discovered through animal studies that curcumin enhances neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus by proliferating the numbers of newly generated cells there. (more…)

December 15, 2016
Gut-Brain Axis – How Your Gut Microbiome Communicates with Your Brain
Your gut-brain axis is one of of the most effective systems you can use to transform your mood. Really? Really. We’ve been talking about that microbiome eco-system community that lives in your gut, and how it affects your mood, your wellness, and your mental health. The gut-brain axis is the pathway of communication between your gut microbiome and your brain — and it’s the system that makes all this possible.

The Gut-Brain Axis is Complex and Powerful

By definition, the gut-brain axis is the two-way communication that takes place between the GI tract and the central nervous system, using biochemical components. They include:
- - neuroendocrine and neuroimmune systems
- - hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis (HPA axis)
- - sympathetic and parasympathetic arms of the autonomic nervous system
- - enteric nervous system (the nerves the run through the gut)
- - vagus nerve
- gut microbiota
The Vagus Nerve Highway is the Gut-Brain Axis

How does all this stuff work? Your gut microbiome combines forces with the nervous system in your intestines, your hormone or endocrine system, your neuro-immune system, and your autonomic nervous system. Then it sends signals along the “highway” of the vagus nerve from gut to brain and back to carry communication signals between the two.

About that nervous system in your intestines… The GI tract has been called the “second brain” because of its intricate network of mesh-like neurons that determine its function. In addition, it fits the “second brain” picture because of the massive trillions of cells that live there in the form of synergistic bacteria – which provide 75% more DNA than the human body does. And, because of the signals that are delivered back and forth to create equilibrium in the body and mind.

The two-way communication between gut and brain occurs via hormonal and chemical signals like norepinephrine, serotonin, and tryptophan, as examples.

Gut Bacteria Can Undermine or Equip Your Mind and Emotions

And let’s be clear: the operations between these trillions of bacteria work to help your body accomplish much of what it does. They also have a significant impact on your frame of mind, your mental acuity, your inclination towards emotional distress – or toward recovery – and countless other feats.

The purpose of this article is simply to show you there’s a highway between your gut and brain. And if you want your brain to fare well, treat the microbiome in your gut well. On the other hand, neglect it, and there’ll be dear prices to pay.

Feed your gut with beneficial bacteria like lactobacillus acidophilus, and freight trucks will barrel up that highway to your brain bearing peace of mind, pain regulation, and stress management.

But neglect it – feed it fats and sugars and keep your life idle and sterile – and a freight train will charge for your brain bringing infection, depression, anxiety, and insecurity.

Studies Pull Back the Curtain

Myriad studies have been conducted to see what the results are from this communication, from gut peristalsis, to immunity from disease, and emotional and mental well-being.

In one study, mice born and raised in a germ-free environment had a very weak microbiome and showed a panicked reaction to difficulty. On the other hand, when certain beneficial bacteria from a broad and healthy microbiome were given to these mice, they reacted with a calm confidence in managing the high-risk situation.

Then in another, mice were injected with the fecal matter from people with depression. (Remember, the microbiome lives in the intestines so the fecal matter contains a sample of that microbiota). The normally carefree mice showed signs of depression and anxiety. When they were offered sweet water as a treat, they turned it down, and through a variety of tests displayed anxiety with more and more intensity. So in their case, their behavior dramatically changed when microbiota from a depressed person entered their body.

And in still another study, 22 healthy men were given a capsule that contained bifidobacterium longum for a month. Remember this one? – it reduces cortisol, the stress hormone. You won’t be that surprised to learn that…you guessed it…they reported feeling less stressed.

You Can Change Your Personal Outcomes

The point is, even though you have neurons throughout your body, nearly three-fourths of those outside your brain live in your intestines, and are connected to your brain by way of the vagus nerve “highway.”

It’s not that easy to just trade in your current microbiome for another. But, you can definitely influence the balance between beneficial probiotic organisms and those that cause dis-ease. In other words, those that make you sick or miserable on some level. They foster stress, depression, agitation, anxiety, and mental distress. To gain beneficial balance over the dis-ease, feed your microbiome probiotics and prebiotic foods.

Those prebiotic foods include non-digestible fiber that you find in raw foods like garlic, jicama, onions, leeks, and artichokes. They feed the probiotics and improve your digestive processes. Remember, as silly as it may sound, probiotics eat prebiotics, so feed them well!

You can take that information and change what you do. Trade computer and TV time for gardening and working out. Eat healthy foods to reduce inflammation, improve immunity, improve mood, reduce your response to stress, and create an inner peace and tranquility you may not have imagined.

You Really Can Change Your Destiny Through Your Gut-Brain Axis

Meanwhile, as you work to improve your microbiome, we can improve your well-being from treatment-resistant depression and anxiety. If you need help gaining a brighter outlook, let’s talk. Because with the use of advanced psychiatric treatments like IV ketamine therapy, TMS treatment and medications, you can experience a real improvement, and still keep getting better through your improved microbiome. Contact me and let’s work through this together, step-by-step.

To your ever-developing best self,

Lori Calabrese, MD
December 9, 2016
Your Microbiome: How It Affects Your Mood

What Is Your Microbiome and Why Does It Matter?

In the last five years, researchers have learned more and more about the the organisms in our own intestinal tract, our microbiome. Let’s talk about the connection between those organisms and their affect on our physical and mental health, for better or for worse.

The types of specific organisms that flourish there have a strong influence on the function of the brain and nerve pathways — and, therefore, on your mood and peace of mind.

What does Depression have to do with your belly?

Anyone who suffers from depression may know there’s an inherited tendency for that to occur. If either of your parents also struggled with depression, the chances are stronger that you might, too. But beyond your own personal DNA, there’s another huge area of DNA that may influence the moods you experience far more.

Deep within your intestines is a community of microscopic bacteria which are both helpful and harmful. This community of trillions of mutually beneficial microbial cells make up the bacteria of your gut. We call it your personal microbiota. Each of these cells contains genes, and the combination of the genes in all of them is your own personal microbiome.

If the genes in your microbiome influence low stress and a positive outlook, the effect on your mood is likely to be positive. But if the genes in your microbe-flourishing gut are favorable to high stress and melancholy, the impact on your outlook is likely to push you into a rut of stressed living.

For the most part, this microbiome is friendly and beneficial to your digestion. It makes use of far more nutrients from your food than would be possible without it. However, in recent times, scientists discovered that this same community of bacterial organisms are to blame for inflammatory and autoimmune diseases like atherosclerosis, asthma, and autism.

You can change your life

Learning to understand the microbiome and even influence its effect is potentially a superbly rewarding endeavor.

So we have to ask: if this teeming ecosystem of bacteria in our intestines can accomplish good productive health-promoting feats, or trigger destructive diseases that can cripple us for life, is there a way to affect this microbiome so it does good and not evil?

To better understand the answers to this and other questions, we need to understand how the natural flora in the gut exchanges information and products with the brain.

The vagus nerve can bring the strongest guy to the ground

And it turns out there’s a nerve that connects the two, called the vagus nerve.

Have you ever seen someone faint at the sight of blood? This fainting reaction happens when the vagus nerve tells that person’s brain to suddenly dilate blood vessels in the body, which results in fainting… and they go out like a light.

It’s the reason that you might see a picture of something gory, and feel a sick feeling in your stomach right before your brain declares “lights out” and you fall to the floor. It’s the vagus nerve that sends those signals.

So with that in mind, what does the vagus nerve communicate to the brain, and what determines that choice?

Think of it this way:

When friendly, health-promoting bacteria ( probiotics) dominate the environment in your gut, those bacteria tell the brain that the environment is favorable for an upbeat mood. Then the sullen melancholy feelings mysteriously melt away. Nutrients and protein are sent to the brain to nourish that upbeat mood, and your glum outlook subsides.

But the opposite is true if the dominating bacteria promote depression, stress, and anxiety.

The gut is the largest organ in the immune system? Really??

The gastrointestinal system is the largest organ in the immune system. This flourishing ecosystem of bacteria can have a positive or negative effect on other aspects of your well-being. So it’s important to your daily welfare to understand how this happens. Then you can take action to promote the best possible environment in your gut for your best well-being and mental function.

Certain bacterial families weaken your immune system, decrease your confidence and emotional stamina, and promote a chronic long-term condition of high stress.

Others reduce stress and promote wellbeing and resilience.

Studies have shown that the more extreme stress is in your life, the community of symbiotic organisms in your gut will create a favorable environment for chronic stress, and unfavorable for mental relaxation.

Stress or Relaxation

Just as “birds of a feather flock together” so it is with these organisms. If you allow stress to go unchecked, the bacterial environment in your gut will shift. And it will come to match that ecosystem of stress and illness. Over time, you’ll find you feel locked-in and stuck in that stressful lifestyle and the outlook that goes with it.

But, it’s also possible to actually change the environment in your gut. It can be made to support low stress, an upbeat outlook, and energy to enjoy life. And you can do it through the foods you eat, the things you do for pleasure, the amount of sleep you get, and more.

For instance, studies have discovered that when lab animals were given probiotics, their high anxiety behaviors were calmed and their immune response was normalized, as well as their apparent relaxation.

Psycho-biotics

If probiotics do that much for lab animals, how much more will they do for you?

Certain bacteria in specific families are considered “psycho-biotic” organisms because, like the probiotics just mentioned, they have an antidepressant effect on the brain.

Further, through systems involving these gut microbes, nutrients are processed and passed through the blood-brain barrier. That improves the relaxation of processes that take place in the neurons. (The nerves that carry information signals to and from the brain.)

The point here is that these probiotic systems are even equipped with a transport to make sure the right nutrients reach the brain and produce the hoped-for results.

This is all great news for those of us who feel we drew the short straw concerning mood disorders in our family tree. It turns out that by investing in the mountain of genetics in our gut microbiome, we have the power to turn our genetic destiny on its proverbial ear.

Watch for my blog next week. Learn more about good microbiota to nurture. See a list of actions you can take, foods you can eat, and factors you can include in your daily life. All of this will ensure your probiotic heroes are flourishing in your gut promoting your best, most productive, and well-adjusted self.

To the flourishing of your best self,

Lori Calabrese, MD

If you’ve suffered from depression, anxiety, or other mental health obstacles and have not had relief, Dr. Lori Calabrese, MD offers innovative psychiatric solutions. Contact us here for an in-depth evaluation. We’ll learn which solutions could work for you best and transform your life as you know it. We’re here to help you find your very best self.

November 24, 2016
7 Tips to Avoid Holiday Stress and Depression

The holidays are quickly approaching and you may already be experiencing some angst. While the holidays are a great way to spend quality time with family and friends, stress and depression aren’t uncommon during this time. Here are 7 tips to help you avoid holiday stress and depression.

1. Be Realistic

We often have an idea of how the holidays will be in our mind but is that idea realistic? Families aren’t perfect and, sometimes, things go awry. Each holiday is going to be different than the last. It’s important to find ways to work around any issues that may arise. For instance, if someone can’t make it, find an alternative way to share the holiday with him or her. You can video chat or send photos to one another.

2. Own Your Feelings

Owning your feelings is a great way to help avoid stress and depression during the holidays. If you can’t attend a family function or if someone can’t attend your function, it’s okay to feel sad or disappointed. If the holidays bring up memories of a deceased loved one, it’s okay to feel grief. Try to set aside some private time to let your feelings out so that you can enjoy the remainder of the holiday.

3. Set Aside Differences

Accepting your family and friends for who they are will help you avoid a great deal of stress during the holidays. You don’t have to agree with anyone’s opinion or life choices; accept them for who they are and agree to disagree.

4. Plan

With so much going on and people coming into town, it’s important to have a plan for the holidays. Set aside specific days for shopping, cooking, and visiting others so that you’re not so overwhelmed. If you have family coming into town for an extended period of time, it may also be helpful for you to plan your menu for their visit to keep last minute meal issues from arising.

5. Say No

Learning to say no will help you avoid a great deal of stress and depression during the holidays. If you say yes when you really wanted to say no, you may develop resentment, which isn’t going to serve you well during this time. If you can’t participate in an activity, say no. If you can’t attend an event, say no. You can’t be everything to everyone and that’s okay.

6. Budget

The bulk of stress surrounding the holidays is often related to money. Many people spend more than they planned and then become worried about making ends meet or paying off debt. This is especially true when buying gifts. To minimize the stress associated with this, it’s important to create and stick to a budget. Keep in mind that you don’t have to purchase a gift for everyone you know.

7. Keep Healthy Habits

The holidays are often a time of rich foods, which can derail your healthy eating habits. Be sure to keep up with your diet and exercise routine during this time. Not only will your waistline thank you, but your mental health will thank you, too. It’s okay to indulge occasionally, but overindulgence only adds to your holiday stress.

The holidays should be a time of peace and joy. Following these tips will help you achieve just that. To learn more, or to schedule an appointment, please contact our office at 860.648.9755.

To getting you back to your best self,
Lori Calabrese, MD

November 21, 2016

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