Holiday depression is a feeling of lowliness and despair felt during the holiday months or on holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving.

Holidays come with a whole bundle of responsibilities and pressure. From coping with financial chaos to losing sleep over loneliness and awkward family gatherings, holidays and vacations cast a murky spell upon many teenagers and adults alike. Read on to find out the ways on how to cope with holiday depression.

What is holiday depression?

Holiday depression refers to a feeling of lowliness and despair felt during the holiday months or on holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving. It may involve sudden anxiety attacks, sleeplessness, headaches, and episodes of nervous breakdowns.

Causes of holiday depression

  • Financial stress
  • Social obligations and pressure
  • Dearth of a social circle that makes you feel lonely and depressed
  • Familial discord and chaos that causes nervous breakdowns

Manifestations of holiday depression

  • Anxiety attack
  • Panic attack
  • Feelings of misery and wretchedness
  • Headaches
  • Sleeplessness
  • Overeating or loss of appetite, and more

Top 10 fascinating ways to drive out holiday depression and stress

Holidays will no longer be a pain in the neck for you if you keep the following tips and tactics in mind.

1. Don’t go overboard with your expectations

The key to spending a refreshing and stress-free holiday is to minimize your expectations. Don’t expect everything to be perfect and try not to freak out if things do not exactly go as planned.

Do not compare your holidays to the Hollywood evergreen classic White Christmas, but hold the reins of your expectations to cut down on stress.

2. Don’t tire yourself out

Holidays are meant to be enjoyed. Even if you are hosting a party of a hundred guests, you have got to find a way to have fun. If fatigue is all that you feel at the end of the day, then that fatigue is bound to be followed with holiday depression and stress.

Unwind, enjoy, and luxuriate the cheeriest time of the year and don’t let any stress or worry bring you down.

3. Keep tabs on the budget and balance sheet

Check yourself before you start doling out your gold in a jolly and festive mood. A vacation always comes with excessive expenditure followed by financial worries and holiday depression.

Keep a tab on the balance sheet, stick to the budget, and maintain an account of your income and expenditure during the holidays to prevent stress and financial problems.

4. Take part in the fun

We often tend to isolate ourselves to seek comfort zones and cozy corners. It affects the stability and peace of mind in the long run. Holiday depression sets in and makes you feel like an outcast.

Take part in the festivities, and join in with the rest of the people. Do not isolate yourself no matter how welcoming and comfy that secluded corner looks.

5. Try out the family detox strategy

Are you sick of questions like “how much do you earn?”, “when do you plan to settle?” and other such dumb questions? Well, you can take a break from such toxic relatives and detoxify your family and friends circle by skipping out their names in the party invitation list.

Do not invite people who only exist to pull you down or humiliate you or make you feel uncomfortable. One of the significant causes of holiday depression is clashes and tussle with narrow-minded relatives and gossip machine family members.

6. Take the celebration postponement with a little more heart

We are adults now with jobs and responsibilities that carry us a little too far away from one another but only by distance and never by love. So just in case if your partner is a hundred miles away from home on Thanksgiving or Christmas, do not let your wistfulness take the form of major holiday depression.

Do as much as you can with the rest of your friends and family on the day. Plan on a big postponed celebration as soon as your partner gets the time to cross the seven seas and come back home to you. Until then cheer up and take the postponed celebrations with a little more heart and a lot less stress.

7. Keep a check on your poison

No matter how stringent a teetotaler you are, a holiday is perhaps not a holiday for you if there is no booze. But keep a strict check on the amount of alcohol that you take. Do not drink to the point of senseless tipsiness.

Alcoholism is a major trigger of holiday depression. Excessive consumption of alcohol followed by throwing up and falling faintly all over the place ruins the holidays not just for you but for the person who is in charge of your alcoholic antics as well. Be cautious about your alcohol intake so that you can remain vigilant while enjoying at the party.

8. Say no to the third helpings

You might not be able to resist the second helping of the delicious and delectable holiday foods, but you have got to put your foot down when it comes to a generous third helping.

Do not overeat and try your best to not to gorge on the tempting desserts and junk food. Excessive intake of food comes with digestive troubles, and a dull holiday depression sets in.

9. Brace yourself for the post-holiday depression

After the glorious holiday, comes the grinding drudgery of daily life. The sudden halting of an ecstatically tumultuous holiday can be quite depressing.

So let the daily life slide in gradually. Skip a day at work, go for a long evening walk or a calming drive to shake off the post-holiday blues and holiday depression before sinking into your domestic and professional life full-fledged.

10. Pop into a hot bath

Sylvia Plath always says that almost nothing can be as curative as a hot bath. Although taking lifestyle recommendations from the authoress might not be advisable, but she couldn’t have been more right about the restorative nature of a hot bath or a cold shower, whichever suits your mood and the weather.

Add a few drops of essential oils and bath salts in the water and soak your tired body and drooping senses in it for about 10-15 minutes daily. It helps in coping with depression by calming the frayed nerves and soothing the panicked senses. It does away with fatigue and stress and heals holiday depression most effectively.

Conclusion

With all said and done, your holidays cannot be happier now. There should not be any trace of holiday depression. However, if you still feel like you need help, then do not hesitate to reach out to your close friends and expert professionals.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Emylee is a freelance content writer and a blogger who is specialized in home remedies, natural cure, fitness and power yoga. She is a nature enthusiast who contributed her writings to many websites, including www.howtocure.com. In her free time, you can find her on adventurous trips and hanging out with family and friends.


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