Ways to manage mental health during holiday seasons

January 30 2023 TalktoAngel 0 comments 1315 Views

The festive season is seen as a time for celebrations and goodwill. People frequently travel long distances to spend time with family and friends for celebrations and major gatherings. While some people joyfully enjoy the holiday season, others might not feel quite as cheerful. Prioritizing your mental health is important, particularly during a season when people are socializing, exchanging gifts, and traveling. If you experience sadness during this season, you are not alone. Many people reports having a lot of anxiety or stress during the holidays.

The holidays can cause major issues, from financial strain to familial conflict. They may also cause additional problems, such as the pressure to choose the ideal gift or to arrange big holiday celebrations. Therefore, it is not surprising that research indicates that mental health issues rise during this season. According to a 2014 NAMI survey, 64% of people with mental illnesses report that the holidays make their symptoms worse.

Prioritizing mental health

During the holiday season client visits are quite less. It’s true that people now are more concerned about their mental health and do take care of it. Even when they are aware that they have a problem, they could feel too busy and overwhelmed to take time off to attend appointments.

Holiday stress

Increased distress is experienced by everyone, not only those who have already received a diagnosis of depression, anxiety, or another mental health condition. You can discover reports on the internet that anywhere between 38% and 70% of people report higher levels of stress during the holidays, depending on which poll findings you read. It's okay if you're concerned about establishing a new "normal" over this festival season. It's crucial to adjust at your own pace and to look after your mental health as you go. Here are some Tips from Dr(Prof) R K Suri, a leading Clinical Psychologist & Mental Health Advocate to assist you in protecting your mental health throughout the holidays, you can actively manage your mental health even during the hardest festive season. Some of them are:

1. Goals for the holiday

Ask yourself what you want the holidays to be like this year before you get too involved in the preparations and festivities. Would you prefer to put more emphasis on family time? Do you wish to invite everyone to a huge holiday party that you throw? Do you prefer a peaceful, low-stress Christmas season in which you don't do anything unusual?

In order to concentrate on getting ready for the party you're going to throw, you might decline a lot of other calls if your goal is to host a huge gathering. As you construct the kind of holiday season you want, it's simpler to decide which invitations to accept and which opportunities to turn down once you have a goal.

2. Setting time limits

This method applies to all the holiday tasks. Decide how many hours you will spend in the decorations, baking, or performing other activities that you dislike doing but that take up a lot of time. Additionally, it prevents those small activities from escaping your memory and attention. If not, you can end up spending eight hours creating holiday treats when you only thought it would take two.

3. Make Time for Healthy Activities for Your Thinking and mental health

Take control of your schedule to avoid having all of your time taken up by extra holiday activities. Put some events on your calendar that will improve your mental health also. Simple activities like reading a good book or viewing your favorite movie or series by yourself can sometimes do a lot to improve your mood. Consider the beneficial actions as an investment. Spending time on activities that promote mental well-being can provide you greater patience, vigor, and happiness when dealing with stressful situations.

4. Reduce Your Exposure to Negative Qualities of Your Mental Health

The temptation to overindulge during the holidays is overwhelming. Overindulgence has a negative impact on your health, whether it's excessive spending, excessive eating or drinking, excessive scrolling, or any other activity. Recognize your own personal problems and limitations. Maybe when you go shopping for other people, you like to treat yourself to a few too many items. When the bills start to come in, despite the temporary high it gives you, it causes extra stress in your life.

Or perhaps you enjoy eating festive cookies, candies, and chocolates. But when you later experience a sugar crash, you regret your choices. Maybe you spend a lot of time on social media browsing what other people are posting. While it keeps you from becoming bored for a short while, it may also make you feel like you are the only one at home browsing through social media while everyone else is enjoying a happy Holiday season with friends and family.

5. Use the "Last Year Assessment" to put things in context

Stress during the holidays can change the way you view yourself, your situation, and other people. You can believe that some issues are more significant than they actually are, which can increase your stress and lead to the vicious cycle again. Apply "the previous year check" if you find yourself thinking, "I have to buy the ideal gift." How many gifts do you remember getting last year, you might ask yourself? It's possible that you don't recall any gifts from last year.

6. Acknowledge your imperfections

Expectations for having the best holiday gathering, providing the best gift, or experiencing the happiest season of the year are high. People could feel inadequate or under pressure to meet the high expectations of the holiday season. Accepting that not everything will be ideal in your eyes during this period will be useful, but many things can still be pleasurable If things don't go precisely as you had expected, that's okay; imperfection is common.

7. Show kindness to others.

While you have no influence over how other people behave throughout the holidays, you can decide to be polite to them. Work on seeing the situation from a new perspective and responding with kindness even in trying circumstances rather than getting upset or irritated. Reach out to loved ones you enjoy spending time with or be polite to the store workers.

8. Keep a Regular Routine for Eating, Sleeping, and Exercise

The status of your mental health might be affected by how well you take care of your physical health. Your mental and emotional health will benefit from actions like exercising and getting enough sleep that keep your mind healthy. Maintaining a consistent diet, exercise programme, and sleep schedule might help you feel prepared to handle the festival season and manage your mental health.

9. Seek Professional Mental Health Help

For professional mental health help talk about your issues with the Best Psychologist in india. Online Psychiatrist, or an Online Counsellors and take Online Counselling at TalktoAngel, Asia's leading mental health and wellbeing platform.

Contributed by: Dr(Prof) R K Suri, Clinical Psychologist, Counsellor, &Life Coach& Dr. Sakshi Kochhar

References:

Clarity Clinic. (2021, June 17). Holiday stress. https://www.claritychi.com/holiday-stress/.

Mental Health First Aid USA. (2020). Mental Health First Aid USA for adults assisting adults. Washington, DC: National Council for Mental Wellbeing.

National Alliance on Mental Illness California. Maintaining mental health during the holiday season (and a pandemic). https://namica.org/blog/handling-stress-during-the-holiday-season/.