Here's how to beat the holiday blues

If you’ve got the holiday blues this season, you’re not alone. Billions of your fellow human beings share your fate.

“That makes me feel better.” Yeah, I know reading this doesn’t help. In fact, it probably makes you even more depressed but so be it. Misery loves company. And in the end, Republican, Democrat, Christian, Jew, Muslim, atheist, we’re all in this together – getting through life.

Actually, every year, I think about depression quite a bit over the Christmas season. And every year that passes by, I lose more friends and acquaintances, and it reminds me of how fleeting this life really is.

I almost wish the holiday season was more low key or didn’t bring to people’s minds the number of family and friends we’ve lost over the past year.

It’s even worse for nursing home residents whose bleak thoughts return to Christmases past when they were still mobile and independent. The sort of thoughts that undoubtedly turn dark and desperate as they consider their present depressing surroundings.

“Hey, Wendorf, I was already depressed before reading this editorial. Now I’m doubling down on my anti-depressant meds today, and I’m going to mix it with some alcohol, just to spite your negativity.”

Very bad idea. When we reach our middle-age years (45 65), we’re reminded that our turn is coming, praying that we’re the lucky ones who don’t get sick and infirm as we move into our senior years.

The Golden Years?

Those senior years are often referred to as our “Golden Years,” until we reach them and think, golden? Give me a break as I reach for another pain pill to combat my arthritis.

Reviewing our genetic makeup (age of parents when they died, etc.), and our lifestyle choices (overweight, heavy smoker, border-line alcoholic, dabbler in meth, recreational user of heroin), we try and pick what the odds are that we’ll live long lives.

You know the trouble with ill health caused by lifestyle choices? They come on slow.

Heavy smoker, you don’t know about COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) until it bites you on the rear. Cirrhosis of the liver? Don’t know for sure it’s coming until it arrives on the scene and it’s too late to change.

Overweight? The onslaught of diabetes took years to develop, but here it is along with bad leg circulation, etc.

As I move into the new year, my iPhone’s contact list is at the top of my list when it comes to depressing topics.

Why?

Because every year, people drop by the wayside and die, and when I see their names and phone numbers, it brings forth the notion — death is really pretty damn depressing when you think about it, because when someone dies, our loss is permanent, at least in this world. I never can remove their name from the contact list though.

They may be gone, but their memory will remain. At least I can still look at old texts and reminisce about the good old days.

The Positive Things

This holiday season, if you want to feel less depressed, just concentrate on the positive things in life, even though they may sometimes feel like very few.

“So, the in-laws aren’t coming for Christmas?”

Maybe not, but trust me, you’ll actually miss them when they’re gone.

Hey, if you woke up and feel healthy, that’s reason enough to celebrate and plaster a smile across your face.

Be sad for the family and friends we lost in recent years but be thankful we had them for as long as we did.

Like the Alfred Lord Tennyson poem says: I hold it true, whate’ere befall; I feel it, when I sorrow most; Tis better to have loved and lost; Than never to have loved at all Time to watch a “Charlie Brown Christmas,” which first aired in 1965. For some reason, that show always chases away the blues.

The good thing about Snoopy and the gang?

They stay around forever.