Even though the New Year has barely begun, many people have already fallen short when it comes to resolutions. People often go into the New Year with bright expectations and when those expectations do not work out as hoped, people may give up. For those trying to handle both daily life and living with mental illness, giving up on New Year's resolutions is not the best decision when hoping to turn over a near leaf and stay free of self-harm/self-injury.

Every year people make resolutions that seem to fizzle away after the first month or so. Just as quickly as the excitement begins, the motivation seems to drift away and then you’re back the square one. No one likes being back where he or she started, especially if progress has been made and the excitement of success has been felt.

The holiday season can bring forward many positive and negative memories. You may laugh over childhood traditions and remember certain gifts you were given and gifts you gave. Certain holiday songs may spark flashbacks of good times, but some can also bring you back to unsafe, self-harm moments. Even the taste of a holiday sugar cookie can bring forward memories, and even though many holiday memories are positive ones, there are always going to be some negative.

The holiday season makes people crazy. Plain and simple, that is the truth. This craziness often consists of anxiety overload, feeling overwhelmed due to tight budgets and having difficulty prioritizing. From deciding what to buy for loved ones to deciding what to cook for holiday gatherings, life can become one big ball of stress and, at times, it can be hard taking a moment to focus on you.

Now that the Thanksgiving and Black Friday madness have come to an end, the post-feast blues have probably started to sink in. You may feel groggy and uncomfortable from binge eating on Thanksgiving and your mind may be overwhelmed with the amount of shopping you still need to do. On top of that, aspects of your day-to-day life that didn’t affect you before, may have now become stressors just because it is the holiday season – icy roads, overplayed Christmas carols and a rise in the heat bill to name a few. If you weren’t anxious before, the statements above may have triggered it.

Many people who self-harm use it as a way to distract themselves from the stressors surrounding them. By focusing on the physical harm they are doing to their body, they do not focus on what was emotionally or mentally draining them. However, self-harm is not the kind of distraction people should use when trying to redirect their negative thoughts.

We all struggle with insecurities and maintaining confidence. Even the most confident individual feels flawed and anxious from time to time. It’s difficult to constantly look in the mirror and tell yourself how beautiful you are without finding something to bring you down. For those who have self-harm scars marking their skin, it can be more than difficult to accept the person you are and to see the strengths you hold.

We’ve heard the saying before: We all have baggage. Some people have baggage regarding their home lives or personal relationships. There are people who have dealt with the death of a loved one or a painful disease. No matter the case, everyone has something that clings to them and hands them anxiety from time to time. Some people can handle those situations well, while others become angry or destructive towards themselves and others. Sometimes baggage can cause self-harm.

We all revisit places from our pasts to remember the memories connected to them. Someone may swing on a childhood swing set to feel a sense of innocence and someone else may revisit an old tree they used to climb to get back that sense of adventure. Memories stick to everything around us and when we least expect it, the feelings connected to those memories can erupt and, at times, overwhelm and possibly lead to self-harm.

Being the season of witches, zombies, vampires and clowns, anything is possible. Strange, odd pranks are expected and people wait hours, huddled together in blankets, to spend twenty minutes on a haunted hayride. (I recently experienced this and it was more than worth it.) However, along with carefree traditions and stomach aches from candy overdose come aspects of Halloween that sometimes bring anxiety and unsafe thoughts to those overcoming self-harm: scars and the color red.