Although holidays are meant to be a happy time for most, they are a difficult time for others.
Drs. Muhammad Saad, Bobby Jain, Mahwish Adnan and Chintan Trivedi, psychiatrists at Texas Tech University Health Science Center, say there are a variety of techniques to get through this time from therapy and medication to exercise, mindfulness, being around loved ones and friends.
Saad, a child and adolescent psychiatry fellow at TTUHSC, said depression is a clinical diagnosis so those with it need to be on medication and in some cases therapy or a combination of both.
“If you’re talking about just the sadness, it depends on the personality,” Saad said.
He added that people may have lost loved ones around this time and their memories make them sad.
“However, for other people, Christmas or holidays are a really enjoyable time of year. For some people who are … very anxious in a social setting, we call it social anxiety, the holidays are stressful because they have to meet family members,” and be around strangers, which creates more anxiety, Saad said.
“Depending on their personality, we need to respect boundaries,” he added.
Adnan said social anxiety and holiday depression can open up opportunities for people to explore options for themselves.
“One thing is if they can open to their psychiatrist about their difficulty, what they are going to be experiencing during the holiday time because it’s not something new to them they have often experienced that kind of problem in the past, so be more open about it with their therapist … and maybe adjusting their dose of medication might be helpful,” Adnan said.
Saad said there are techniques like mindfulness, exercise, meditation and finding a stress outlet to cope with anxiety are possibilities.
For some people, things like listening to music or going for a walk can help.
Darkness can also cause more depression, so being outside can help with anxiety and depression.
Jain said light boxes are available through Amazon that are affordable. Morning light can also be helpful on days when there isn’t a lot of sunlight.
Jain said the natural instinct for people with anxiety is to withdraw, isolate and find reasons not to go to social gatherings.
“But this is exactly what they don’t need to do because it only makes (it) worse because they have a desire to be around people somehow they feel very anxious around people, so avoidance is never the answer to any kind of concerns. What we recommend is a couple of things that can be very helpful. One such technique is to go in groups; go around people that you are comfortable with, go with people that you are familiar with,” Jain said.
Also, they should remind themselves that every time they went to a social gathering the most difficult part was going to it.
“When they recollect the experience … they actually enjoy it. Most social anxiety folks have the impression that going there is very difficult, but once they spend some time there they start liking it and recollect it as a very pleasurable experience,” Jain said.
On the flipside, he said, when you isolate yourself the anxiety may die down, but the loneliness and dysphoria set in, which is worse than the anxiety they may face going to any social gathering.
“This kind of intervention takes a lot of support and encouragement from family and friends,” Jain said. “Those who have good support systems, those who have good friend circle, usually fare much better compared to those who are isolated and very lonely and also folks who have chronic history of avoidance and reluctance to go to any social gathering.”
Although the pandemic is over, the habit of social isolation has lingered.
Social isolation, Jain said, is linked to depression and long-term social isolation can lead to a number of neurological conditions including dementia.
“Good mental health is never achieved in isolation, so initially we may have to help ourselves and help our loved ones, our friends and colleagues to come out of social isolation but it’s an effort to do this,” he said.
A good idea is to befriend someone who is socially outgoing. Jain noted that churches are a good place to go.
Particularly on Christmas Eve, he said, there are a lot of Christmas celebrations.
Jain said a number of his colleagues are not traveling this year for whatever reason, so they plan to get together and watch a movie, take a walk or even play indoor games like ping pong.
