Holiday stress! Remember when the holidays were fun? Perhaps you had to harken back to early childhood to answer that question accurately.
Let’s face it, the holiday season can be joyous and fun, but it has also become synonymous with stress. Travel plans, enormous expenses, reuniting with contentious relatives—you must juggle all of these factors and more along with your usual obligations. Combine that with a desire to have the ideal holiday image in your mind, and you have a perfect recipe for holiday stress and anxiety.
It sounds like a one-way ticket to increased anxiety levels. In fact, as much as 40 percent of adults experience social anxiety related to the holiday season.
What Causes Holiday Stress?
- Too Many or Too Few People: Your stress can spring from the overwhelming crowds or the overwhelming loneliness this time of year may provide.
- Time Constraints: There are simply too many things to do and not nearly enough time to make it all happen.
- Financial Concerns: Travel costs, buying gifts, and so many more unique expenses can keep anyone up at night.
- Family Wars: Who among us does not have a handful of relatives with whom they cannot abide for very long?
- Overdoing It: From overeating to overspending to over-partying, excess seems to be the norm.
Holiday Stress and Anxiety
In many cases, holiday stress is something limited to the holiday season. However, if it goes unchecked, it can sour even the most joyous time of year. If you already struggle with underlying anxiety, then Holiday stress can tip you over your balance point.
Therefore, we do not want to ignore holiday stress. It not only has the potential to ruin a celebratory time of year. Unchecked stress can also be a precursor to an anxiety disorder.
5 Ways to Keep Stress and Anxiety Levels Low in Holiday Season
With the holiday season right around the corner, it’s crucial to have a strategy for navigating holiday-induced anxiety.
1. Remember: No Family Is Truly “Functional”
2. Practice Self-Care
The best version of you is equipped to handle stress. Self-care contributes to you being at your best. Regular sleep patterns, daily exercise, healthy eating, and relaxation techniques—these steps work all year long and must be maintained when the holidays arrive
3. Create Realistic Expectations
You can’t do it all. Not every moment is going to be happy. There is no magic formula for making your family get along. Setting realistic expectations allows you to lower the stress levels while appreciating those times when everything seems to click.
4. Be Grateful
Even amidst episodes that can provoke anxiety, you can create wonderful memories. Savor those events. Be grateful for each and every time. Trade your perfectionistic expectations for gratitude and watch the anxiety meter lower.
5. Reevaluate and Work to Make Changes For Next Year
If finding reasons for gratitude feels impossible, it may be a strong signal that change has become urgent (see below).
Asking For Help Is the Holiday Gift That Keeps on Giving
The holiday season can be depressing. We may miss someone. Perhaps when we take stock as the year ends, we are unhappy with ourselves. There are countless ways that the often manufactured joy feels like a personal attack.
As touched on in #5 above, you can take this time of year to reflect. It helps to have some guidance in this process. An experienced therapist will help you explore the patterns and circumstances that brought you to the present.
From there, new strategies are employed and—through trial and error—you can find a fresh path toward making the next holiday season far, far less stressful.
