Feeling overwhelmed this Thanksgiving? Where do you go for Thanksgiving dinner? How do you not overeat? (And if you do, how can you not feel so guilty about it?) How can you deal with that relative you just hate?

Thanksgiving is a time of the year for many familys to reconnect, but it's also a stressful time for many. Our annual Coping with Thanksgiving Guide will help you with some of the most common Thanksgiving-related issues. So while we can't improve your family, perhaps we can improve your mood and help you get through the holiday with your sanity intact! Have a Happy Thanksgiving -- or at least one that has just a little less stress this year.

General Holiday Coping

• The Empty Chair at the Holiday Table
  How to make it through the holidays when a loved one has passed away.
  
  
• Holiday Feasts and Family Misbehavior
  How can you deal effectively with a family member's misbehavior this year?
  
  
• Holiday Traditions
  Understanding the importance of family traditions around the holidays.
  
  
• Talking Turkey: Managing Unhappy Relatives at Holiday Time
  How do you deal with your most difficult relatives during the holidays?
  
  
• Don't Stress Holiday Travel
  Quick tips to get you traveling safely and with less stress than last year.
  
  
• The Turkey Trail: Which Home for the Holidays?
  So many families, so little time!
  
  
• 10 Tips for Surviving Thanksgiving with the Dysfunctional Family
  If it doesn't come naturally, know that you're not alone.
  
  
• 5 Steps to Gratitude and Lovingkindness: Mondays Mindful Quote with Hafiz
  (Mindfulness and Psychotherapy) - So here we are, a few days before Thanksgiving in the United States and so taking this moment while reading these words to really consider what you are thankful for.
  
  
• 4 Quick Mindfulness Techniques
  (World of Psychology) - This is Thanksgiving week ... The week some of us are very thankful that we don't live in the same city as our relatives.
  
  
• 12 Ways to Be Thankful
  (World of Psychology) - I don't feel like I'm very good at gratitude. This virtue comes hard to a depressive whose first thoughts are seldom positive. It has only been with much work and lots of practice that I have been able to cultivate gratitude and be genuinely thankful.
  
  

Eating and Drinking

• Food, Family and the Holidays
  Identify your triggers and help make your Thanksgiving a little less food-stressful.
  
  
• Mindful Emotional Eating: Leveraging More Coping per Calorie
  (360 Degrees of Mindful Living) - Holidays, unfortunately, often mean stress. Stress, for many, means emotional eating. Food-focused holidays, like Thanksgiving, make it all too easy to look at food as coping.
  
  
• Thanksgiving Dinner: Harvest the Moment!
  (360 Degrees of Mindful Living) - The act of giving thanks is more than just a gesture of gratitude. It is a unique teaching moment. Indeed, by expressing appreciation for this or that we teach the world about what matters to us...
  
  
• Overcoming Emotional Overeating: Q&A with Stephanie Vincent
  (Weightless) - I've already had the great opportunity to speak with two women about their eating disorder recovery. I hope to regularly feature Q&As with individuals who've recovered from eating disorders, binge eating, negative body image or any kind of disordered eating...
  
  
• Manage Overeating Over the Holidays
  For many, family gatherings are positive events, but for the 9 million men, women or young people who have an eating disorder or engage in overeating, the holidays, without proper planning, can feel like nightmares.
  
  
• Why Are You Overeating?
  What motivates your overeating? This article will give you some insights and provide some eating guidelines to help you manage your overeating.
  
  
• Excess Carbs May Alter Appetite Regulation
  The ability to regulate appetite may decline with age if we overdo the carbohydrates, a recent study suggests.
  
  
• Get Rid of Your Excuses: Three Minute Refutations
  Learn to reduce unwanted behaviors -- such as overeating -- with these three-minute refutations.
  
  
• Celebrating Safely with Alcohol
  8 tips on how to safely celebrate the holidays.
  
  
• Holiday Drinking: Keep It Safe
  5 strategies for keeping it safe during the holidays.
  
  
• Overeating: It's All In Your Head
  A four-part article describing cognitive-behavioral self-help techniques that can help you reduce your overeating.
  
  

Children and Family

• Facing Thanksgiving Together After Trauma
  (Healing Together for Couples) - One of the unique things about Thanksgiving as a Holiday is that on that day most people across the country, from all ethnic, cultural, religious and socio-economic backgrounds do the same thing -- they gather with others to give thanks and eat turkey...
  
  
• Holiday Travel with Young Kids
  Learn the secret to traveling with kids -- travel in the "kid zone."
  
  
• Preparing Kids for Holiday Visits
  You love to travel with your children, don't you? Make it less stressful for them and for you.
  
  
• Seasonal Stepfamily Stress: Tips to Help All Your Family Members Enjoy the Holidays
  You've got a lot to deal with two families, but you can make it work more smoothly.
  
  

Stress

• More Coping with Holiday Stress Tips
  More tips on how to deal with the inevitable holiday stress.
  
  
• Holiday Stress: A Resourceful Survivor's Guide
  Survive the holiday season with grace and less stress than last year!
  
  
• Helpful Hints for Navigating the Holidays
  Helpful tips to help you navigate the holiday gatherings in your life.
  
  
• Holiday Coping Tips
  Need more tips? Try these!
  
  
• Coping with the Holidays Guide
  Read our general Coping with the Holidays Guide for all of your upcoming holiday needs, including expanded Christmas, family, children, SAD, and New Year's articles.
  
  

Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 22 Nov 2011
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.