5 Tips to Protect Your Mental Health Over Christmas

As Christmas approaches, we always see an increase in client’s asking for counselling sessions at Omega Counselling.  This includes clients that we may not have counselled in a long time.

 We think this raises a good question, ‘why do people want additional counselling when Christmas approaches you might ask?’

 Because Christmas for many people is actually very stressful, very emotional and sometimes depressing.

 We are constantly told it is the ‘season to be jolly’ and that Christmas it is a time of joy to be shared with family and friends.  But underneath this positive, joyful messaging, which, let’s face it, helps sell more goods to the public, is another story about the social and financial pressure people are subjected to over Christmas period and Christmas Day itself. 

Christmas time is a period of great anxiety and depression for many people struggling to maintain good mental health.  It is important to remember that not everyone comes from a loving, caring and generous family or social circle.   It’s not just that engaging with family and friends during Christmas can exacerbate a stressful relationship and cause tension and anxiety for someone, it is also the fact than many people are explicitly excluded from these celebrations and social events at Christmas time too.

 So, paradoxically, being included can be difficult and cause anxieties and stress and being excluded at Christmas time can cause anxieties, stress and loneliness as well.

So Here are Some Practical Tips for Surviving Christmas and Maintaining Your Mental Well-Being from the team at Omega Counselling.

1.      Create Effective Social and Personal Boundaries Over Christmas

Everyone knows that it can be hard to say ‘no’ to social events with family or friends in the lead up to Christmas.   And saying ‘no’ all the time can be counterproductive too. Ultimately, leading you to be left out of some things you may be interested in attending during the Christmas period.

So, think about strategies that won’t lead you to being completely excluded from things in the future, maybe during a later phase in your life when more socialising and family time suits you better. 

• Accept invites that will give you back something emotionally or allow you to connect with someone you do value within the group/gathering.  Try to avoid going to events that give you nothing emotionally positive.

• Practice excusing yourself  ‘politely’  from some social and family events to stop yourself just automatically saying ‘yes’ or feeling compelled to say ‘yes’.  

 Saying no occasionally or when it suits you is generally healthy practice and can build resilience and self confidence for future interactions where you would like to be more in control of what you do.

• Set time limits.  You don’t have to stay until the end.  Think about when you might want to exit a social event before you go, this way you are mentally prepared for leaving at a time of your choosing. Practising this type of thinking helps resist against feeling compelled to stay when you don’t want to. Don’t waste emotional energy staying in an environment that is not nourishing you in some way.

2.      Ease Up on Your Social Media Consumption Leading Up to Christmas

• Social media broadcasts to the world another person’s lifestyle but the problem with this is the effect this is having on the people that receive it, or consume it. There is now a considerable amount of academic and clinical research on the effects of consuming Instagram and Facebook lifestyles and, frankly, the research results aren’t that good. 

• FOMO – the fear of missing out. Watching people shopping for the perfect Christmas gift or taking a trip to Lapland for example can cause a stress reaction, an anxiety that you are missing out on what appears to be a wonderful, happy and nourishing lifestyle.  This anxiety can lead to physical, financial and psychological issues for vulnerable people that feel left out.

• Constant Comparisons – the nature of social media apps means you can be constantly interrupted during the course of the day with ‘constructions’ of other people’s lives.  This attritional reinforcement is also addictive and this exacerbates the desire to compare yourself to these other, seemingly happy and wonderful lives that are ‘constructed’ purely for social media.

• TAKING A BREAK from social media is proven to decrease brain stimulation and, consequently, your stress levels.  Staying off social media apps will help you be more ‘present’ and ‘mindful’ in your own world, with your own physical reality. 

People that take a break from social media are also shown to have improved sleep, be calmer and have a greater mental capacity for self reflection and processing events and relationships in their own lives.  These are all benefits that can help with the reduction of anxiety and depression so easing up on social media at Christmas time is especially useful for psychologically and emotionally vulnerable people.

• Remove the pressure to respond to persistent and constant messaging. That ping you hear for a new message on Facebook, Instagram or Whatsapp is quite addictive.  Psychological studies have shown that there is a strong  ‘compulsion’ to look at the latest incoming message.  This then causes a desire to respond or comment immediately.  This can lead to a persistent engagement with ‘other people’s lives’ for the entirety of the day.  Taking time off social media breaks the habit of needing to look and respond to external events, which is often regarding people you may not even know. Instead, muting your social media apps will let you begin to focus on your own life and self reflect on your needs.

3.      Find Ways to Give Back to Others – Volunteering at Christmas

• We know that not everyone can be with family or loved ones during Xmas but there are ways you can still be engaged, compassionate and experience a sense of caring and sharing over Christmas.   It is an ideal time to help support others by joining in with charitable activities.  At this time of year charities are always seeking additional Christmas Season help, so you could possibly help at a soup kitchen or food bank, for example.  There are even charities that distribute toys to children or simply attend care homes to sing Christmas Carols. 

There’s plenty of ways to get involved with Christmas and enjoy the ‘Christmas Spirit’ without having to engage with family or loved ones if you cannot or do not want to. Volunteering over Christmas is an ideal way to give something back, to do some good and bring cheer and hope to other people.  Helping others is also known to generally improve a person’s mood, so by helping others, you can be helping yourself too.

But you get even more out of it than improved mood because you are engaged with other like-minded people, experiencing compassion and empathy in a network which is making a difference in other people’s lives too. 

4.      Stick to a Routine and Limit Alcohol and Sugar Consumption

• Christmas time can mean feeling compelled to go out to more social events than you might like to.  Attending these social events invariably leads to much later nights and a lot less rest in general.

If you are emotionally vulnerable or suffer from anxiety or depression, this combination is known to be detrimental to your wellbeing as it can seriously disrupt your sleep patterns.  We know from academic research that disrupted sleep and the resulting poor sleep that it causes can increase feelings of anxiety and depression.  If you know sleep is critical to your mental well being then try and stick to a good sleep/rest pattern leading up to, and over, the Christmas holiday period.

• Alcohol is a known depressant and Christmas is a time when there are more opportunities to socialise and drink alcohol.  It can be really hard to avoid during the lead up to Christmas so anyone experiencing depression or anxiety should be cautious and selective about what social occasions they attend during the Christmas period.  Avoid situations where you may feel compelled to drink alcohol when it is in your own interests to avoid it.

• Limit Your Sugar Intake.  There are so many sweet treats on hand during Christmas.  Just about everywhere you go leading up to Christmas you can find yourself being offered a Christmas treat.

If you suffer from low mood, anxiety or depression then paying attention to your sugar consumption could be to your benefit.  Although you will feel an initial ‘spike’ of energy from eating high levels of sugar in products like chocolate, cake, biscuits and energy drinks, sugar consumption can lead to low mood.  Sugar will trigger the release of dopamine and serotonin which is known to make you feel good. But after eating sugar, there is always a ‘crash’ as your pancreas works hard to clear the sugar out of your system.  A sugar crash can lead to feeling sadness, fatigue, anxiousness and irritability.

Sugar consumption can even increase the production of your body’s stress hormones, in particular, cortisol which is damaging to your long term physical and psychological health.  Eventually, high sugar consumption will interfere with the brain’s neurotransmitters leading to impaired regulation of mood, a decrease in concentration levels and contribute to worsening the effects of depression and anxiety.

If you are already emotionally vulnerable or experience low mood, depression or anxiety, try and take note of how much extra sugar you are consuming during the Christmas period.  Best advice it to try and avoid extra sugary treats or try to limit exposure to them.

This can be hard during Christmas but keeping a food diary or journal is a great way to managing and analysing the effects of the extra Christmas sugar intake at this time of year.

5.      Talking to Someone Independent -  Person Centred Therapy

We understand that giving advice on paper is easy.  Sometimes it takes more than reading helpful or useful advice.

Sometimes talking to someone is the most helpful thing of all.

 There is help out there through various charitable organisations or you can speak to one of our professional BACP counsellors about any emotional issues, anxiety or depression you are experiencing. 

 We do know from experience at Omega Counselling that this time of year, particularly with Christmas approaching, it tends to get harder for people struggling with anxiety, loneliness and depression.   

 We offer counselling services in Manchester, Greater Manchester, Wigan and the surrounding areas of Lancashire.

 Contact us to book a free consultation.

Don’t suffer alone, let us help you improve your mental health and lead a positive and more fulfilling life.

Rachael Ingram