Coping with post-holiday stress? CAMH expert available for media interviews

TORONTO, Jan. 9, 2013 /CNW/ - The holidays are over and with January's arrival, many people can feel physically, emotionally and financially stressed.

Dr. Katy Kamkar, clinical psychologist in the Work, Stress & Health and Psychological Trauma Programs at CAMH is available for interviews to discuss ways to cope with post-holiday stress.

Tips to cope with post-holiday stress:

• Look at spending habits: set up a budget to minimize debts.
  
  
• Self care: proper sleep, healthy diet, physical exercise can help with overall health.
  
  
• Seek social support among family and friends.
  
  
• Family conflict: one of the best ways to resolve conflicts include taking a proactive position and discussing it.
  
  
• Use the holiday season as a learning experience and plan to do things differently next year.
  
  
• Remind yourself of the things you enjoyed over the season.
  
  
• New Year's resolutions: many people make resolutions and wish to make improvements, but then abandon their resolutions and feel guilty, discouraged, and sad for not accomplishing their goals, which can increase stress.
• Remember that keeping New Year's resolutions is a process and not a one time effort
• Set realistic goals and expectations
• Complete one goal at a time
• Use social support, keep track of your progress, focus on benefits of improvement/changing/praise self for each step completed
• Think of resolutions as opportunities.
  

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is Canada's largest mental health and addiction teaching hospital, as well as one of the world's leading research centres in its field. CAMH combines clinical care, research, education, policy development and health promotion to help transform the lives of people affected by mental health and addiction issues. CAMH is fully affiliated with the University of Toronto, and is a Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization Collaborating Centre. For more information, please visit www.camh.ca.

SOURCE: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Michael Torres, CAMH Media Relations, 416-595-6015 or [email protected]