Health & Wellness
DiscoverNorthTexasMagazine.com
The Holidays and mental health Can the holiday season affect your mental health? BY LAURA BRADLEY With the Upcoming holiday season, thinking about family gatherings may fill you with anticipation and excitement or fill you with anxiety, fear, and dread. Depending on your family dynamics, you may or may not look forward to holiday gatherings. Thinking about shopping, travel, gift expenses, and a full calendar of invites and events, can put an enormous amount of pressure on you both mentally and emotionally. Loneliness and grief can make you feel very isolated and all alone. All of these in their own unique way, can affect our mental health, sometimes without us even realizing it. The holidays at our house used to be something that I looked forward to every year because they brought me so much joy. Unfortunately, there are now times when I find myself dreading them due to changing family dynamics and loss of loved ones. For some reason, it seems as if the pain is magnified and raw during the holiday season. When you look around and see loved ones are missing, it is hard to keep yourself from getting into a negative headspace.
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