Licensed Marriage/Family Therapist
Licensed Alcohol/Drug Counselor
405-707-9600
www.peggyferguson.com
peggyferguson@hotmail.com
To access the articles, just click on the title of the article. It will open in a separate word document that can be saved to your computer and/or printed off. All articles are copyrighted. We welcome you to use them for your own information and to share them with others as long as you cite my authorship, provide website information/link, and do not edit them.
If you have additional resources that you believe would be helpful to others, feel free to drop me a line, and I will try to add these to this page. If you have early recovery holiday stories or holidays in transitions (e.g. grief, loss, newly married/divorced, etc.) stories that you would like to share, send me an email and I will try to include them.
New: What is Holiday Depression?
New: Remember Lay-Away?
Home For The Holidays: The Realities
New: The Holiday Expenses Worksheet
The Recovering Person's Guide to Surviving and Thriving Through The Holidays Without Losing Your Sobriety or Your Sanity Table of Contents To purchase this Ebook Click here >
New: "Using the Cognitive Therapy For The Holidays Worksheet" to Manage Holiday Stress
New: Identifying Your Real Holiday Values to Assist in Your Stress Management
New: Managing Holiday Stress and Growing In Recovery
Guidelines for Developing Patience and Tolerance for Your Family During The Holidays
Two Simple Tips to Manage Holiday Stress
Common Holiday Stressors For Families In Recovery and How to Handle Them
What is Holiday Depression?
By Peggy L. Ferguson, Ph.D.
Holiday depression can be a combination of several emotional/mental health factors that come together to create or worsen symptoms just before, during, or after the holidays. It is largely the “holiday season” timing of the appearance of, or worsening of symptoms that leads to the label “holiday depression. Many people who experience chronic depression find that their depression worsens around the holidays. To read the rest of this article, follow this link: What is Holiday Depression?
Post - Holiday Let Downs - How to Survive and Thrive
By Peggy L. Ferguson, Ph.D.
If the holidays have left you feeling a little let down and depressed, you can restore your sense of balance and contentment by shifting your focus to the new year ahead. The torn, ragged wrapping papers, bows, and empty boxes create a sense of emptiness. A desire to fill up this void with something can create a craving to spend money. Trying to recreate that spending euphoria experienced during the holiday shopping season by compulsive spending just leads to another let down. To get over the post-holiday blues, try making a list of the things that you accomplished this year. Or, better yet, make a list of the blessings you received this year. A little gratitude goes a long way in reducing depression and disappointment.
If you are kicking yourself over the goals of 2008 that you did not accomplish, then spend some time and energy figuring out what went wrong. Did you make progress toward those goals? Did you get completely sidetracked? Did unforeseen obstacles get in the way? Figure out what happened, but most of all, move from telling yourself that you are a failure, to using it as a problem solving exercise. Then decide what your goals for the New Year will be. Are your goals left overs from last year's goals? Are they completely different or something in between? To read the rest of the article, follow this link: PostHolidayLetDowns
Copyright: Peggy L. Ferguson, Ph.D., 116 W. 7th, Suite 211, Stillwater, OK 74074, phone 405-707-9600, fax 405-707-9601, email peggyferguson@hotmail.com, http://www.peggyferguson..com
Serving Stillwater (74074, 74075, 74076), Perry (73077), Perkins (74059), Cushing (74023), Pawnee (74058), Guthrie (73044), Ponca City (74601, 74602, 74604), Morrison (73061), and other local communities.
Providing services for Alcoholism, Drug Addiction, Chemical Dependency, Sex Addiction, Mental Health Issues, Depression, Anxiety, Stress Management, Addiction Recovery, Drug Abuse, Spouse of sex addict, Relapse prevention, Drug cravings, Family Business Issues, Couple Money Issues, Co-dependency, Adult Children of Alcoholism Issues, Cross-addiction, Co-occurring disorders, marital family therapy, marriage family counseling, step-parenting, step-family issues, couple money issues, grief, mid-life issues, infidelity. Providing individual, group, marriage, family, and couples sessions. Providing professional supervision and training and consultation services.