How can Therapy Help When I am Feeling Overwhelmed with the Holidays?

The holidays can bring a wide spectrum of emotions—from excitement, joy, and anticipation to anxiety, feeling overwhelmed, depression, loneliness, or despair. There are many factors that impact mental health and coping including biological, psychological and social experiences, known as the biopsychosocial model.

Therapy can help provide a break to de-stress by “naming” things that are going on. By doing so, one can better understand their experiences and gain clarity when feeling overwhelmed. Let’s consider examples of circumstances that impact the individual, their circle of social influences including families, friendships, communities they interact and identify with, and environments in which one lives and exists within. Understanding sources of stress and the factors contributing to stress can help identify what you might need to for yourself.

Personal Circumstances: What is currently going on in your personal life? Stressors, especially the onset of multiple stressors in a short amount of time and the consequences of those stressors can be overwhelming. Examples include struggling with mental health, medical health, or substance use, experiencing a stressful or traumatic event such as job loss, legal issues, financial stressors, divorce/ separation, or a death.

  • Therapy can provide a safe place to process your thoughts, feelings, and experiences that impact emotional well-being. For example, when one can recognize and name emotions, then they can begin to understand the emotion, identify any triggers, and work with these. Therapy can also help with skills to help build resilience for coping.

Family/ Friend Circumstances: What is currently going on in the lives of your friends and family? Their own responses and you respond in return can contribute to overall stress. Having the support from family and friends can provide validation during a stressful time when support is needed. If you are seeking emotional comfort and the person you reach out to appears preoccupied/ not fully present, sets a boundary to limit conversations/ interactions or makes the situation about them, you may find yourself feeling more alone.

  • Therapy can provide emotional social support within the therapeutic relationship while helping to strengthen and repair relationships with friends and family and set boundaries as needed. Therapy can help you find ways to receive internal validation and stop seeking approval from others. Therapy can also help you practice gratitude for the people in your life that help you cope during times of traumatic stress.

Community/ National Circumstances: What is currently going on in your neighborhood, in your state, in the nation, and across the globe? If many Americans were already stressed out before the election, emotions are still high for many people post-election, especially when gathering within families with political views on polar opposites. The holidays can be particularly stressful for groups of people who experience racism, sexism, and homophobia within their families of origin. Finding supports within communities of identity can offer acceptance, safety, and belonging. Coming together as a community also helps unite towards shared goals.

  • Therapy can help you live a more authentic life according to your values, by acting in your choices that support your goals. This concept from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps with psychological flexibility and is especially applicable to those who want to take a more mindful approach to working with challenging emotions by taking committed action.

Written By: Charlotte Johnson, MA, LPCC

The information featured on this site is general in nature. The site provides health information designed to complement your personal health management. It does not provide medical advice or health services and is not meant to replace professional advice or imply coverage of specific clinical services or products. The inclusion of links to other websites does not imply any endorsement of the material on such websites. The inclusion of links to other websites does not imply any endorsement of the material on such websites. The information provided in this blog post reflects the personal views of the author. The blog post contains general health information and is not a substitute for your doctor’s care. Please discuss with your doctor how the information provided is right for you.

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