The Rock & Roll Shrink Ep. 80 Who Says You Can't Go Home (Toxic Family Holidays)

Tonight’s show is called, “Who Says You Can't Go Home (Toxic Family Holidays).”

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, and Chanukah, Yule, Festivus, Christmas, and New Year’s not far behind that, our society is inundated with heavy marketing and romanticized, nostalgic images of how the holidays should be, both for ourselves and people around us. 

It is not fun, but it is truthful and necessary to remember that these family-reunion focused holidays can be stressful, painful, resentful, or even toxic for some people. It is also important to realize and accept that, as various people all grow up and become adults with their own preferences, lives, and obligations, that they will certainly not all prioritize the exact same rituals and traditions that we might.

And last, it is vital that those who don’t want to participate, for understandable reasons or not, learn some healthy and effective coping strategies for addressing the social pressures to conform.

Tonight, we will discuss:

• Our cultural obsession with holiday nostalgia
• Making new traditions or adapting to new lives
• Dealing with toxic families and societal holiday pressures

We'll start off the evening with some topic-relevant Classic Rock played by Dr. Mathis, followed by Classic Rock trivia in "The Rock & Roll Shrink Recalls," followed by our topic discussion.

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