The word “sadness” isn’t exactly seen to be synonymous with the holiday season. However, for many, this time of year seems to bring undue amounts of stress and unnecessary emotional baggage. In fact, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has reported that 64% of people who live with mental illness have found their conditions deteriorating during the holiday season. So what can be done to help, or at least ease, some of the constant stress on one’s mind during this time of year? Good thing there are some options you can try or encourage a loved one struggling with worsening mental health during the holidays to do.

Learn to Minimize People Pleasing

During the holiday season, it’s very easy to get caught up in saying “yes” to every outing you are invited to without thinking much of it in the moment, only to then realize that you have been swamped with invites and functions to attend but physically and mentally don’t have the time to go to all of them. In this situation, your feeling of obligation to say yes has caused your mental health to take a turn for the worse, and you should always prioritize yourself. Thus, make sure that you realize it’s okay to say no! You don’t have to go everywhere people ask you to, and they will understand if you don’t want to! 

Cut Back on Social Media

With everyone home for the holidays and gatherings going on all around you, social media posts are at an all time high, and it is very important that you minimize the inevitable self-comparison that comes with this. The more you scroll through social media, the more you might feel like you are not doing enough and then feed negative thoughts into your mind, which will cause you to unfortunately go down a vicious spiral of self-loathing. To prevent this, take some time off! Instead, you can go outside and do an activity that is associated with winter (for example sledding), and hopefully avoid any mindless social media scrolls! 

De-stress!
The hustle and bustle of the holidays is sure to make someone question everything about their life, all while being tired beyond belief in the process. To help ease the constant stress that comes during this time of year, it is imperative to find ways that help you wind down, whether that be anything from baking brownies to crocheting boots for your cat. Little do you realize, but having little things that subconsciously give you peace of mind will make your day countless times better. 

Sleep!
With the possibility of family and friends around you all the time and functions lasting till late in the night, it’s very easy for your sleep schedule to go down the drain and for bad sleep habits to form. Even moreTo prevent this, it’s important that you set a designated bedtime for yourself for each night of your holiday season— possible in the form of an alarm clock on your phone—and make sure you prioritize a  good night’s sleep more than anything else. After all, with less sleep, you’re more likely to feel increased irritability and once again put undue stress on yourself. 

With the winter break approaching, happy holidays to all from The Echo.