Mental Health - Holiday Stress, Parties and Hangovers: Drinking ...

Holiday Stress, Parties and Hangovers: Drinking Responsibly This Holiday Season 3 5 6

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Holiday parties are among the highlights of the winter season, and these parties tend to involve drinking alcohol.

If you?re not careful, you might overindulge in festivities, leading to a hangover the next day. This can become a problem, especially if the next day is a work day.

Caron Treatment Centers recently released survey results from 2,005 adults age 21 and above, suggesting that it is quite common to drink excessively, suffer from a hangover and miss work after a holiday party.

In fact, 64 percent of Americans have either called in sick or know someone who did because of a holiday party hangover.

And 74 percent of holiday party attendees drank more than three alcoholic drinks or know someone who has at a holiday party, which is considered above a moderate alcohol limit.

Drinking out of moderation could be a sign of substance abuse or depression, which are major mental health issues.

The workplace can already be filled with stress and competition, so missing work or having impaired functioning in the workplace just adds to a negative workplace atmosphere.

Sometimes alcohol can lead to destructive behavior, which is even worse if the holiday party involves co-workers.

Survey results showed that most people who have attended holiday parties noticed behaviors such as arguing and aggression, excessive use of profanity, drunk driving and inappropriate disclosure of private details.

Dr. Harris B. Stratyner, the vice president of Caron Treatment Centers and New York regional clinical director, said in an email that hangovers can be terrible for mental health because dehydration leads to an ?alcoholic migraine.? Serotonin levels also decrease, which leads to depression.

?Drinking too much alcohol can affect your mental health and harm your status in the workplace, because you can come off looking immature and having poor judgment,? Stratyner said.

?Employers and colleagues will start to question your judgment, therefore leading them to question your reliability to meet deadlines and do your job well.?

He suggested only drinking a maximum of two alcoholic drinks at work-related events.

We value and respect the experiences of all of our HERWriters, but everyone is different. Many of our writers are speaking from personal experience, and what's worked for them may not work for you. Their articles are not a substitute for medical advice although we hope you can gain knowledge from their insight.

Source: http://www.empowher.com/mental-health/content/holiday-stress-parties-and-hangovers-drinking-responsibly-holiday-sea

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