The Challenges of Celebrating Thanksgiving while Living With an Autoimmune Disease (Part 1)

The holidays can truly be “the most wonderful time” but if we’re being honest, they can be hard on our bodies. As people living with autoimmune disease and chronic illness, stress has an enormous impact on us and our disease symptoms. And while Thanksgiving is a lovely time to get together with family and friends, it can be also be incredibly stressful on the body.

My goal this Thanksgiving is to make it through, not only flare-up free, but with the energy and joy to truly enjoy the holiday and make the most out of the time spent with my family. So I wanted to share with you what I’m thinking about this year as we prepare for the holiday season.

There is so much information to share that this blog is a two part series. First, in Part 1, I’m going to share the holiday hurdles that we face, that can cause challenges for us and our health. Then- in Part 2- I am going to share the essential tips and tricks I use to overcome these challenges and stay healthy and happy.

1. The calendar is working against us. Thanksgiving comes as the seasons begin to transition to from fall to winter. When the seasons change and the temperature changes, our bodies struggle to handle the change due to shifts in barometric pressure, putting us at a higher risk of a symptom flare-up. 1 2 3 Depending on where you live, temperatures may be dropping making it harder to wake up, harder to move, and cause aching joints. We drink less water and want to eat more food, and generally go into hibernation mode.

2. We are more likely to struggle with Seasonal Affective Disorder. As the days get shorter and the dark hours get longer, we begin to miss the sunlight. This can lead to Seasonal Affective Disorder, which contributes to health issues like anxiety, depression, problems sleeping, lack of energy, brain fog, and many others. Not only does this hinder our healing, but it can trigger an activation of autoimmune activity.1

3. We are more likely to take on the emotional and physical stress of caregiving, which limits our ability to put our own needs first. The holidays can make it even more challenging to put our needs first. We often sacrifice our own self care in order to make others happy and that is heightened in the holiday season. We put additional stress on ourselves to do the gifting, cooking, hosting and decorating. We run ourselves into the ground making sure the holidays are “perfect”- but we don’t manage our own energy output very well. And when we use up too much of our energy reserves, our body goes into flare-up mode, otherwise known as the battery crash (not familiar with this term? I wrote about it here).

4. We are more likely to worry about financial stress. Gifting is a huge part of the holidays and it starts on Thanksgiving weekend, with the crush of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Just as we often put the happiness of others before our self care, we oftentimes manage our finances in the same way. We can’t afford everything, and during the holiday season especially, we have to make choices. We are most likely to sacrifice things that seem like “excess”- and often those are related to self care. So it’s a double whammy, we often cut back on the time we spend on ourselves because we are busy caring for others, and we cut back on the money we spend on ourselves, because we are busy gifting it to others.

5. All of this stress takes a toll on our bodies and our most common physical response is to indulge ourselves with sugar. It happens to me year after year. The stress of the holidays build up, and I get more and more tired, and my body feels depleted. And I find myself struggling with heightened sugar cravings. And then I tell myself, “Look, I’m exhausted, it’s not a problem if I indulge this Thanksgiving. I’ll just get back on track when the holiday is over”. And because there are so many sweets and pies and wine around, it’s easy to indulge. The result is that I feel more sluggish, more tired, and more swollen, inflamed and uncomfortable than I did before.

So… tell me, do any of these hurdles resonate with you? Are you reading this blog and nodding along and saying, “Yep, that’s me!”

The first and most important step is to recognize that you are up against these hurdles. Because we cannot change things if we are not aware that they are problems in the first place. And I know what you are thinking… well, there is nothing I can do about this. The weather change is what it is. There’s nothing I can do about the days getting dark. I have to cook and clean for the big Thanksgiving dinner. And what am I going to do- not buy gifts for my family??

In Part 2 I am going to share the very simple and easy ways you can overcome these hurdles. They don’t require big changes, just a few teeny tiny tweaks to your day, and you will find your energy to be increased and your body to be feeling better, which means you are more likely to enjoy the holiday season and remain flare-up free!