By Katherine PlumhoffOriginal Source: yahoo.comRaise your hand if you’ve found yourself sitting at the dinner table during a holiday meal, staring at the sliced cranberry jelly fanned out on one of the good plates and willing yourself to bite your tongue and not comment on your great-uncle’s political opinions. (It’s not just me, right?)

The holidays can provide opportunities to reconnect with our loved ones, celebrate together, and build beautiful memories. But they can also be stressful, anxiety-filled, triggering, and awkward.

“Stress runs rampant between Thanksgiving and Christmas, making it an especially difficult period of time for those struggling with mental health and substance use issues. Families are a source of a lot of our pain, and the holidays are all about family,” says Evan Haines, recovering alcoholic and co-founder of Alo House Recovery Center. “We say this is the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ of holidays for addicted people, between Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve.”

The bad side of holiday get-togethers can drive us to…click here to continue reading