Question: How do I manage my mental health, especially during the festive season

How to manage your mental health, especially during the festive season. PHOTO | POOL

Unknown to many people, the festive season can be a nightmare experience for some individuals even as those closest and supposedly dearest to them watch in disbelief as tears of sadness roll down the faces of those who are supposed to be celebrating with them.

Some years ago, we were asked to see a 35-year-old mother of two, who had, for the second year running “lost” the use of her right arm. All the tests done could not find an explanation for this unusual clinical picture.

The hint came by looking at the file of her admission the previous year, which revealed that she had fallen ill in mid-December. A junior doctor had added a note which was ignored by his senior colleagues.

It stated, “Admission today a day prior to going on Christmas holiday… husband seemed very angry and upset”.

It was this seemingly innocent file entry that raised our suspicion that this was possibly the recurrence of an illness precipitated by the pressure that comes to many during the festive season.

READ: Coping with mental illness

Later in therapy and in a flood of tears, the lady described the Christmas season at the home of her in-laws, who were ordinarily very good people.

During the festive season, all five brothers came home with their families and were cramped up in the uncomfortable home, where there was no running water and they had to use a pit latrine.

In addition, she did not speak the language of her in-laws, who when together at home seemed to have endless stories about things from their past.

The brothers and their father enjoyed their drink late into the night and as she explained, she missed her husband while they stayed in the same compound.

To add injury to insult, she was reminded all the time that as the eldest wife in the home, she oversaw all that took place in the home, from arranging menus to keeping the home clean.

She felt like a slave in the time and place she was supposed to be enjoying the company of her family.

The psychological paralysis of her right arm had saved her from the hell of being alone in a crowd during the festive season.

Years later she came to thank the team for having helped her family always stay together happily including during the festive season.

Your question is therefore an important one not only regarding a mentally healthy lifestyle in the festive season but indeed all year round.

Sleep, for example, is one of the casualties of the festive season. There is a severe disruption of the sleep pattern due to long hours of labouring cleaning and washing up.

READ: Postnatal depression affects up 15pc of mothers

Good sleep hygiene is central to mental health during this season.

Heavy alcohol consumption is the other factor. Joyful as alcohol makes one seem in the first place, it then leads to a severe low well known to those who overindulge during this season.

Many people lose their routines during the festive season and some stop doing health-promoting activities such as regular exercise and eating moderately.

This is a season of overindulgence for many and leads to the sorrow of needing to lose weight soon after.

For yet others, the season leads to massive unplanned expenditures that can lead to a very stressful beginning of the year which can itself lead to anxiety and depression.

In a sense, there is a great need to approach the festive season with a clear plan as to what to expect regarding ensuring that the family is left intact at the end of celebrations.

It is equally important to emphasise that mental health promotion is an all-year proposition, and one must ensure that those activities that promote good mental health are attended to all year.

At the centre of good mental health are the relationships that we have with family and friends which must be always nurtured deliberately and consciously.

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