{"id":230,"date":"2021-12-22T12:30:35","date_gmt":"2021-12-22T12:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/blog\/?p=230"},"modified":"2022-02-01T20:20:56","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T20:20:56","slug":"mental-health-during-the-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/mental-health-during-the-holidays","title":{"rendered":"Mental Health During the Holidays"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The media often presents the holidays as a cheerful time for all. Images of couples kissing under the mistletoe and families gathered around a warm fire dominate our screens throughout the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But sometimes, what should be a joyful time instead reminds people of the challenges in their lives; couples being asked when they\u2019ll have children while silently battling with infertility or miscarriages, reminders of lost loved ones, family members experiencing the criminal justice system, or interactions with people who may have caused harm and trauma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness,<\/a> 64% of people with mental illness report that the holidays make their conditions worse. Children and teens are not immune from this, as the highest rate of child psychiatric hospitalizations occurs in the winter.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For young women and girls, who according to the CDC<\/a> experience higher rates of depression than their male counterparts, it is especially important to have access to resources that help them cope with seasonal stress, depression and anxiety brought on by the holidays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pace provides support to girls by centering their experiences as young women in today\u2019s world and recognizing how trauma may inform the choices they make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis Christmas will be hard for us because this will be the first Christmas without my dad,\u201d said Jennifer, a 16-year old Pace student. \u201cHe passed on the 25th of September of this year, so the 25th of December will be even harder. I see my mom doing her best to be strong, so I\u2019m trying to be strong for her. I just wish people understood that Christmas isn\u2019t about presents \u2013 it\u2019s about family, so don\u2019t take them for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We could all use a little more kindness in our lives, so it\u2019s always important to remember that you never know the internal struggles the person in front of you may be smiling through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone, regardless of their story, deserves safe and supportive spaces to heal. Keep in mind, it\u2019s ok to take care of yourself in whatever way is best for you this holiday season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The media often presents the holidays as a cheerful time for all. Images of couples kissing under the mistletoe and families gathered around a warm fire dominate our screens throughout the season. But sometimes, what should be a joyful time instead reminds people of the challenges in their lives; couples being asked when they\u2019ll have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":231,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"post_tag":[39,21,28],"class_list":["post-230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mental-health","tag-community-support","tag-counseling","tag-mental-health"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":232,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions\/232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacecenter.org\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_tag?post=230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}