It doesn’t take a physician to say that these are difficult times, resulting in significant depression and anxiety. We have pandemic, social upheaval and political theater. And all of it transmitted to us 24/7/365 on cable and satellite. Worse, it comes to us on our home computers, and on the smartphones we carry around and look at every few minutes in our own toxic news cycle that takes us from fear to rage and back again at blinding speed. And it is offered to us in a way that endlessly supplements the advertising revenues of the social media sites, which addict us and feed on our worries and rage.
As a physician, I find this tragic. I see it in patients and I see it in loved ones, who daily find a new reason to find this life more hopeless and who then identify one more person or group to assign to the “enemy” list. There’s plenty of good news on every front. But that doesn’t trigger as many clicks, and so those who make the news don’t bother with it.
Anxiety and depression are real, with or without the news cycle. Biology and upbringing, trauma and life situations all combine to trouble the human mind. There are therapists and medications that make a huge difference. But in these chaotic days, and in all days, there are simple things that we can do. For example, a man whose family has heart disease through no fault of his own can simply choose not to smoke and continue to take his medications.
So in the Christmas season, let me prescribe daily doses of the story of the Christ child. From the words of prophets living in their own dark times to the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary, to obedient Joseph, all the way to the shepherds, angels and Magi, on down to the presentation of the child in the temple — read it, and read it again. Read every version. Listen to it in audio form and when it is presented in song. Read it instead of a news story of violence or rioting and instead of looking at numbers of COVID cases.
Our thoughts are under our control far more than we realize. And like food to the body, which can bring health or sickness, a good story can remake us and leave us healthier and happier than before. And what better story right now than that?
Merry Christmas and good health to you!