An online search of “mental health during the holidays” brings up a barrage of articles from sources including the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Mayo Clinic, and Harvard Medical School, with titles like “The Most Difficult Time of the Year: Mental Health During the Holidays”; “Maintaining Mental Health During the Holiday Season (And a Pandemic)”; and “Not So Merry? Holiday Depression and Stress.”
Following these results are a flurry of blogs seeking to provide helpful “tips and tricks,” or suggested coping mechanisms for managing mental health during the holidays. Given the narrative surrounding holidays and the holiday season in the United States, it may be surprising to some that the suggested searches include questions like “Why is my anxiety worse during the holidays?,” and “Do depression rates rise during the holidays?”. To others, this may be the opposite of shocking.
Research and news articles on the subject of mental health during the holidays goes back several decades, unpacking the ways in which family gatherings and expectations, financial pressure, hosting pressure, and travel expectations can lead to increased stress, fatigue, and dependence on maladaptive coping mechanisms.