Holiday Seasons: Exciting or Anxiety-Inducing?

For many, the holiday season stirs up a combination of joy, warmth, and excitement. Yet for others, this time of year brings feelings of anxiety, stress, or even dread. The holiday season, while often painted as a cheerful, family-filled time, can also come with complex emotions that are perfectly valid.

The Pressure of Expectations

Holidays are often portrayed in films and adverts as picture-perfect celebrations, where everyone is joyful, gatherings go smoothly, and relationships are loving and uncomplicated. This imagery can create intense pressure with high expectations, often set by societal ideals, family traditions, or our own desires to make everything “perfect.”

When the reality is different, it’s easy to feel disappointment, stress, or guilt.

Family Gatherings and Personal Boundaries

For some, family gatherings can be an uplifting experience; for others, they’re a source of stress. Being around family can sometimes bring up unresolved issues, past hurts, managing clashing personalities or simply the need to be “on” for long stretches, which can be emotionally taxing. This may resonate with you but you find it hard to create boundaries that protect your well-being. 

Financial Pressures

Gifts, events, travel, and more can add financial strain during the holidays. Feeling the pressure to keep up or give generously can sometimes overshadow the joy of the season. Acknowledging your financial limitations and making your needs known to others may not feel possible due to expectations, shame, the need to fit in or not wanting to let others down.

Managing the Overload

For some, the holiday season adds a layer of overstimulation. Social events, busy shops, holiday music, and general noise can be draining, particularly if you’re already managing anxiety. Not everyone will understand how you feel as they embrace the excess of joyful living, the noise, the crowds and the many social obligations.

Navigating the Holidays When You're Alone

For those spending the holidays on their own, this season can amplify feelings of loneliness or isolation. The constant emphasis on family gatherings and social festivities may make solitude feel more pronounced. You may be grieving lost friends or family, reliving happier times but only feeling sad, feeling left out of conversations about plans to spend time with others.

Surviving the holidays when they don’t fill you with joy

As you think about how this time will be for you and it makes you feel sad, anxious, fearful, angry or worried, consider if talking to a therapist can help. A therapist can provide support as you navigate these feelings, helping you understand why certain elements of the season might feel triggering and how to manage them compassionately.

Seeking support if you need it can help you move towards and through the holidays in a way that feels manageable and true to you.

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