While the holiday season is traditionally associated with happiness and joy, it’s also the time of year when domestic violence incidents reach a peak.

“Things are more stressful during the holidays due to a combination of things,” said Barbara Hogan, executive director of the Douglas County Task Force on Family Violence. “Family members are visiting, there’s lots of celebration and alcohol consumption and concern about finances and the economy. Some people are out of work and don’t know how they’re going to feed their families.”

Hogan said her office has seen an increase in calls during this holiday period and callers often want to know about getting protective orders to shield them from their abusers.

“Holidays are a bittersweet time,” said Maegan Eggler-Bright, legal services coordinator for the task force. “When you have unhealthy relationships, it all comes to a head at holidays.”

Detective Shannon Eason of the Douglasville Police Department has also witnessed this coming together of stress factors during the holidays as fuel for domestic problems.

“The kids are out of school and families are together for 24 hours,” Eason said. “You combine this togetherness with alcohol consumption and illegal drug usage and you often get domestic violence.”

Eason said another contributing factor during the holidays are disputes among divorced families on how to share custody of the children.

“They often argue over where to pick up the children, or violation of protective orders or visitation rights,” she said.

The economic situation during the past two years has added to the problems, she said.

“People have lost their jobs and there’s money issues,” Eason said. “They’re not able to look for work during the holidays and they may be arguing over money spent shopping.”

She said domestic arguments can rapidly turn physically violent when alcohol is involved and there’s weapons in the home.

Teresa Smith, executive director of SHARE House, the local shelter for battered spouses, said the home has been at 100 percent capacity for the past four months.

“We’re not only full at the shelter, we’re also housing individuals and families in lodging outside the shelter,” Smith said.

She also sees economic reasons as the major factor causing domestic violence to increase this year.

Even when the holiday season ends, this upsurge in violence often carries over into January.

Smith said SHARE House always sees an increase of crisis calls in January.

“Sometimes the abuser is on his best behavior during the holidays,” said Eggler-Bright. “However, afterwards we see a big explosion. The holidays are sometimes just a period of peace and calm before the storm. Even the Super Bowl can cause violence.”

Here are some domestic abuse contacts for the holiday season:

• Task Force 24-Hour Crisis Line, 678-715-1196;

• SHARE House 24-Hour Crisis Line, 770-489-7513;

• Task Force Web site, www.douglastaskforce.com;

• and SHARE House Web site, www.sharehousedouglas.org.