The three deadly sins - Shopping, eating, drinking

Wendel Abel, I AM WHAT I THINK

The holidays are here again. The carols are playing, the malls are teeming with activities and parties are being organised. Yes, Christmas is here again! The temptation is great; everything is designed to have us spend and eat too much, drink too much and shop excessively. In addition, some people get depressed at Christmas and they, too, will engage in self-soothing behaviours such as eating, drinking and shopping.

The downside of all of this is that after the holidays, some people realise that their diet is out of control, they have put on too much weight, individuals with shopping problems would have spent too much and drinkers would have had too much. Others would have broken their exercise programme and addictive gambling could find that their habit is choking them. So, after the holidays, behaviours get out of control, new problems resurface and many people sink into depression.

Dr Wendel Abel is a consul-tant psychiatrist and head, Section of Psychiatry, Dept of Community Health and Psychiatry, University of the West Indies; email: yourhealth@gleanerjm.com.

Holiday strategies

Here are some strategies to maintain a healthy holiday:

1. Accept that you have a problem. If you have a tendency to eat, drink and spend too much during the holidays, first accept that you have a problem.

2. Avoid some people, places and things. The best safeguard is to flee from temptation. Avoid the people, places and things that will encourage the eating, drinking, shopping and other problem behaviours.

3. Stick to your diet. Many people spend the entire year working hard at their diets, and at the end of the year they lose control. There is the temptation to eat too much high-calorie, high-cholesterol food, but pay attention to what you eat and remember you don't have to eat everything.

4. Watch your shopping. After shopping too much, many people engage in post-shopping rationalisation to justify the shopping; others get into deep depression after buying useless or expensive stuff.

5. Remember to exercise. Everything is designed to prevent us from exercising at this time of the year. The traffic is heavy, there are numerous party invitations and functions to attend and, of course, the weather - it is so cold. However, stick to the exercise programme.

6. Do some affirmations. Write out your personal affirmation today. For example, "This Christmas, I am going to remain healthy, sober and debt-free." Read it every day and stick to it.

7. Develop a coping card. This is a sheet of paper or card on which you are going to write the things you are going to do to remain healthy, sober and maintain your weight this Christmas. Be specific and realistic about the things you are going to do.

8. Deal with depression. For many people, the reason for overeating, overdrinking and overshopping is that they are self-medicating with unhealthy behaviours. Deal with your depression.