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Home > Healthy You > Vitality Plus > Outwit the Holiday Blues

Outwit the Holiday Blues

Try these creative solutions for a happy, healthy season

Helping With the Holiday Cards

It’s a fun way for different generations to spend time together, as Donna McKiernan, 75, of Trexlertown and her grandson, Mike Kennet, 18, of Macungie, are doing here.

Learn the Signs of Depression
If you visit older loved ones regularly, you may not notice subtle mood changes. But be on the lookout during the holidays for these signs of clinical depression:

Fatigue, loss of energy
Loss of interest or pleasure in activities
Feelings of sadness and/or irritability
Inability to concentrate, remember things and make decisions
Changes in sleep patterns, weight or appetite
Restlessness or decreased activity
Feelings of guilt, hopelessness or worthlessness
Thoughts of death or suicide

Tune into the post-holiday blues, too—sad feelings may intensify after the holidays. Visiting loved ones have gone home, leaving the elderly person alone again. Unfulfilled holiday expectations also may leave older adults feeling especially sad.

Want to Know More about how depression is treated in the elderly? Call 610-402-CARE.

When you think of the holiday season, you probably recall parties, music and happy family get-togethers. For older adults, those rich memories can be a mixed blessing.

“Holidays bring a flood of feelings—many of them good, but some painful,” says geriatrician Russ Rentler, M.D. The balance tips toward sadness and depression for many elderly people.

For one thing, they’re coping with the loss of loved ones who have died or moved far away. “An older person who lives alone and doesn’t get any visitors may feel especially isolated during the holidays,” says Lehigh Valley Home Care psychiatric nurse specialist John Boos, R.N. Even when there are get-togethers, they aren’t necessarily stress-free: “Families often try to fit in all sorts of visits and activities, which can be stressful for older people,” says Lehigh Valley Home Care medical social worker Thomas Smith.

“Older adults also may feel a sense of loss and frustration because ill health and limited income and energy make holiday gift-buying, traveling and cooking more difficult each year,” says psychiatrist Ralph Primelo, M.D.

If you’re looking for creative ways to make the holidays more pleasurable for yourself or for an older person you love, here are suggestions from our health professionals:

How to help an elderly loved one

Holidays may remind an aging friend or relative of a loved one’s death. Encourage him or her to share sad feelings. Take time to listen.
Acknowledge loved ones who have died by remembering happy times and celebrating their lives during the holidays.
Don’t expect an elderly person to cook, shop and travel the way he or she used to. Expect that you’ll need to take on more, and plan accordingly.
In holiday planning, take into account your older loved one’s special needs and disabilities.
Put yourself in their shoes. How will you want to be treated at age 80?

How to help yourself as an older adult

Be realistic. Don’t expect everything to be perfect.
Set a reasonable spending budget and stick to it.
Delegate responsibility. Ask your adult children or younger friends to make meals, travel to see you and/or provide transportation.
Eat balanced meals, get plenty of sleep, and be as physically active as you can—before, during and after the holidays.
Take advantage of free holiday offerings such as concerts, home tours and neighborhood lights.
Give loved ones the gift of your time. Offer to babysit, make a scrapbook, do holiday baking or help with decorations.
Reach out to your community. Donate time to a local charity such as a church, food bank or homeless shelter.
Associate with positive people.
Never turn down an invitation to get out and socialize.

All the professionals quoted here are with Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network.

Want to Know More about “Abundance Day,” a great way to meet people and exchange free, creative gifts? Call 610-402-CARE. Click here to read about “Edible Gifts for Seniors.”

This page last updated 2/12/08 04:08 PM

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Lehigh Valley Hospital has campuses in Allentown and Bethlehem, Pa. and serves the Pennsylvania communities of Easton, Doylestown, Quakertown, Hazelton, Lehighton, Perkasie, Pottstown, Pottsville, Reading, Scranton, Wilkes Barre, Stroudsburg, and the Poconos and also Phillipsburg and Flemington, N.J., and western New Jersey. You don't have to travel to Philadelphia or New York for quality health care.