Are Holiday Traditions Sacrosanct or Can They Be Changed?

With the winter holidays approaching, many are faced with both anticipation and anxiety. For some it brings back memories of delight and magic and for others, dread and mayhem. It may have been a time when loving family and friends gathered around a tree, a menorah, a kinara or yule log, singing familiar songs. It may also, less pleasantly, recall times when holiday spirit was more of the liquid form indulged in to excess, voices were raised in anger, hands were raised to strike or throw objects that smashed into walls. Cellular memory is based on the idea that our bodies store experiences. We may not be consciously aware of incidents or specific details, but sensations may occur that are otherwise inexplicable. Returning to the scene of the crime, being around people who remind the victim of a perpetrator, a child in their life turning the age they were when their own abuse occurred, hearing the name of the person or people who assaulted them, the death of the perpetrator, all are potent reminders. The same is true even decades later, when the bells start jingling, once Halloween decorations disappear from the shelves, at the first hearing of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, or the lone snowflake wafts down from the clouds. For one woman, who experienced multiple losses around the holidays, including the death of her husband nearly 20 years ago on December 21st, having spent the previous five and a half weeks with him in an ICU and the passing of her mother coming up on e...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Family Holiday Coping PTSD Trauma Christmas family tradition Holiday Tradition Life Changes Thanksgiving Source Type: blogs