Got room in that snowed-in cabin for one more? :p The holidays can be frustrating - the commercialism, the rushing, the long to-do lists - and because all the things we do at the holidays seems to be the opposite of what the holiday stands for - love & peace, rest, family, appreciation of the good things. There certainly isn't any love & joy going around in the mile long lineups at Walmart!! I just keep telling myself that if I can get through the next few days, my reward will be to enjoy a fun and happy day with the whole family, and a few days off work to get some much needed R&R. And the New Year can bring new beginings, perhaps a fresh start. Plus after Dec.21 the days start getting longer, more daylight. Yay! A little bit closer to a new spring and beautiful summer. :)

Gabs, Take some time to get organized. Make some tea or coffee and write a list of everything that you can think of that needs to get done between now and the new year. Once you have everything on paper, try to prioritize it. Make categories: High Priority Medium Priority Low Priority This should help you concentrate your thoughts and make you more efficient. Good luck on Thursday. Brenna, Bilingual Support Specialist

Sounds like anxiety and depression... go figure ;p We have been repeteing the same message to the kids for the past nine years, christmas is about the birth of the Christian savior. It is about God, our father, letting his son come to earth to teach us how to be good human being and to explain god to us. So there is a lot less of the commercialism. It is the commercialism that affects my daughter and her birthday on dec 23 that wears me out. So gabs, what is your to-do-list? lets take it one thing at a time and the essentials will be done... that reminds me of a story!!! A professor was at the point of the year where students were so stressed and upset with course loads and with the season's expectations that he came into class with a big glass jar a sack of stones, another of pebbles, some sand and his usual cup of coffee. Ok class I have a quick puzzle for you this morning to start the class. How am I going to get all three of these sacs into this jar? Just by looking at the stones, pebles, and sand in their bags on the desk it was easy to see that not all three would fit into the jar ... Watch. If I pour all the big stones in first there is still a bit o space at the top Right? so now by pouring a few pebbles at a time and mixing them with the stones, the pebbles fill in the small spaces between the stones. Finally the fine sand can be poured in and equally mixed by swirling the jar and tipping it back and forth. So now the jar was filled to the very top... This is very similar to what you need to do with your lives students. You place your biggest and most important priorites first into the time and place in your life. Things like school, family, work,... then you find time for the important things like holidays and projects then the rest can slide in the remaining spaces. If we plan all the little things first it would have been like pouring the sand into the jar first. The other items would not have fit or it would have taken so much effort to knock the rest in that we would be left with no time for anything. Finally, the professor took his cup of coffee, smelled the steam as the students began to understand what the professor was saying, and he poured his coffee into the jar. And remember, that no matter how full your life is, and how many priorites you are juggling there is always a place to sit back a moment and enjoy a good cup of coffee!

Thanks casey, Wildcat, thanks for your post, makes me feel kind of normal? seems that everyones life is just crazy right now. So much to do and not enough hours in the day, also having to do things that we really would rather not do. I am having such trouble with concentration, everything is taking much longer than it usually does. I'm sure come Christmas day I will have forgotten the damn turkey or some other vital ingrediant to make the day what it is. Also have to get my father to Mass Christmas eve. Operation on Thursday is worrying me more than I thought it would and much more than it needs to as its really only minor. Its just my head that cant get it into perspective. Thanks again and Happy Christmas!

hi gabs, you know I am so overwhelmed that I have turned my head off. Nothing is happening but simple survival right now. Get up. eat. work. craft/buy xmas gifts. prepare b-day party. sleep. I do work, overtime. I am stuck planning and coping with too much due to holidays and too much due to collection problems at the month-end with the holidays. I do the major plans for Xmas at home... out xmas family supper, mass, and gifts. And them the xmas lunch at me family and supper at his family. I do the gifts planning and wrapping and the girls want my crafted jewlery and jewelry boxes so I spend hours each eving getting those done. And then when it is all over my husband is at home with the kids for two weeks rest and fun with only one pay. So more overtime for me to worry about rent and groceries... and accidents and ... Then there is the usual holiday torture. Department winter party. accounting winter party. Company winter party. Gift exchanges. My husband's xmas party away in the middle of nowhere (that's we got rid of on the 14th of dec!). dept gift for the boss, cards for this that and the other on leave... by the way we still all have our work to get done here... If I could get away with it I would rent a cottage in a snow drift up north for three weeks and hide!

Hi gabs, You are right, activity does tend to fluctuate during certain times of the year. Please don't let this deter you from posting, it may just take a bit longer for replies from your fellow members. Thanks for sharing your concerns and frustrations here with us. Sorry to hear that you are struggling right now. Please know that as you complete each of the sessions, you are learning valuable skills that you must aquire before moving on. The techniques that you’ve learned will help you in the next set of exercises. For example, in Session 8 we’re going to introduce you to a few techniques designed to help you get to know and identify your core beliefs and assumptions. When we get to Session 9 we’ll teach you how to develop and test new beliefs. Although you need to focus on the exercises from Sessions 1-10 on a daily basis, Sessions 11-16 will provide you with a number of new tools that will help you to overcome your depression and get back to your life. In other words, Sessions 11-16 can help you make great strides in conquering your depression, but you have to have a handle on Sessions 1-10 first. Keep us posted, Casey ______________________________ The DC Support Team

Hi all. Firstly welcome all new members. I have noticed over the past couple of weeks the lack of posts from members. I know with the Christmas period many of you are very busy with other things, but by the same token, this period can be the most stressful for even the strongest among us so I would like to invite as many as possible to post often over this period so that we may support each other. After a couple of weeks of holding myself together and practising being strong, i have hit the downward spiral big time. This time though I know what caused it and it would have been impossible for me to control. It was of course, the relationship between myself and my husband. I organise everything for Christmas, presents, food, social gatherings etc. well this year due to my illness i have been able to do very little, so the dress I bought for Christmas hangs in the closet going know where, just like me as nothing organised. Its not just that, lots of things have come up but my main problem with the sessions is. WHY is relationships only covered in session 11! It has taken me weeks to get to seesion 6. Our relationships with our partners, parents and children are fundemental to our welbeing and recovery and yet instead of approching them early on into the sessions we have to wait until session 11. Well I need help in this area now. In fact the problems in my relationship have set me back so far this past week i feel as though i must start week one again. Will I ever learn how to deal with things? My strength a couple of weeks back had a major fall out from the whole family so although I stood up for myself, it was such a shock to everyone that i am now, at best being tolerated but more often just plain ignored. It just no good educating ourselves when all around us are not prepared to help us impliment any changes, let alone welcome them.