8 holiday tips for dealing with difficult relatives

You can’t change what your difficult relatives are going to do; you can only change yourself. But when you change, a relationship changes. Here are eight tips for doing that.

4. Don't drink much alcohol

 It can seem festive and fun to fill up your glass, but it’s easy to lose track of how much you’re drinking. Alcohol makes some people feel merry, but it also makes some people feel combative, or self-pitying, or lowers their inhibitions in a destructive way. I basically had to give up drinking because alcohol makes me so belligerent. And if other people seem to be trying to avoid or curb their drinking (or their eating, for that matter), don’t make a big deal of it or urge them to indulge.

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