Resolution Phobia

New Year's resolution (noun) : a commitment to a project or lifestyle change that one makes that generally is interpreted as advantageous; it is effective on New Year's Day and is forgotten by Valentine's Day
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Happy new year and good luck to all who are determined to make and adhere to those resolutions!

I know, I know. We all will be drinking less alcohol and more water, eating better, exercising more, organizing our photos, keeping in touch with friends, etc., etc. Amazing how similar everyone's resolutions are (and how they really don't change much each year). But even more amazing is how much advice writers at Psychology Today and other psychology related blogs and zines give out on resolutions. Some of my favourites:
-Get angry and get those resolutions accomplished!
-Love yourself and accept what you can get done!
-Make positive not negative resolutions!

All that and they still agree that many resolutions are forgotten in a few weeks.

What’s an analysand to do?

Why, examine why one makes a resolution one can’t keep, of course! Keep your therapist employed this new year and give him/her a shot at this.

Holiday Disorders Continued

post christmas stress disorder (noun) : the inability to get over the fact that christmas is one day a year (and is over, dude); not to be confused with the more understandable post christmas debt stress disorder
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Typically characterized by one or more of the following symptoms:
(1) leaves decorations up past new year's day
(2) makes christmas-gift requests year round
(3) purchases christmas decorations/cards/wrapping paper/gifts on the day immediately following christmas
(4) carries around mistletoe to randomly place over heads of others with the hope of getting a kiss
(5) hugs/kisses others with holiday greetings well into January

We all know someone who suffers. Please remember it's a disorder and the person simply needs help. A bit of slushy, dirty snow slopped onto them by a passing car is known to snap them out of it.

A Cynic's Holiday Wish

christmas (noun) : a time when each of us gets to reflect upon what we each most deeply and sincerely believe in: money
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Just half kidding you guys! Happy Holidays!

Another Holiday Phobia

angoraphobia (noun) : the chronic fear that cousin Harriet from Omaha sent you another homemade gift for christmas
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I know we all dread that gift.




Today's definition comes with thanks to Bruce Kluger in a 2003 holiday article in Psychology Today.

Disordered Holiday Spirits

North-Polar Disorder (noun) : the chronic fear that someone is on the roof
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(And doing who-knows-what up there)!




Today's definition comes with thanks to Bruce Kluger in a 2003 holiday article in Psychology Today.

Ho Ho Phobia

Ho-Ho-Phobia (noun) : a profound fear of rotund, bearded men in red suits and black boots that surfaces earlier and earlier each year as sufferers begin to report frequent sightings of their most feared apparition on street corners, in shop windows and especially on the second Saturday of December when "Santacon" occurs and thousands are found running from bar to bar drinking in cities across the globe
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Today's definition comes with thanks to Bruce Kluger in a 2003 holiday article in Psychology Today(!).

I guess even therapists have a sense of humour at times.

Great Psychologists

Maybe it's just me, but when I see a father (Sigmund Freud), daughter (Anna Freud) and old guy (Carl Jung) arm-in-arm and advertised for sale as finger puppets with a couch, all sorts of psychological references come up. And not necessarily anything about which I want to think or blog.

I'll just leave it at that.