Find helpful resources for protecting your mental health during the holidays, including blog posts, peer support groups, podcasts, and TED or TEDx Talks.
Table of Contents
Blog Posts
- Managing Post-Holiday Fatigue: How to Recharge Mentally and Emotionally?
- How to Prepare for Holiday Stress: A Mental Wellness Checklist
- How to Deal with Difficult Conversations at Holiday Gatherings?
- How to Celebrate the Holidays Alone and Make It Special?
- How to Avoid Burnout While Chasing New Year’s Goals?
- How to Cope with Holiday FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)?
- 10 Holiday Rituals That Support Mental Wellness
- Beating the Winter Slump: How to Manage SAD and Holiday Blues?
- How to Cope with Family Estrangement During the Holiday Season?
- How to Set Boundaries During the Holidays?
- How to Cope with Holiday Expectations And Loneliness?
- How to Manage Family Conflicts at Holiday Gatherings?
- 10 Tips on Coping with Grief During the Holiday Season
Holiday Peer Support & Support Groups
- GriefShare Holiday Groups — Online & In Person
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Short holiday-specific gatherings where people who are grieving can meet others who understand what the season feels like after a death. Participants can join the discussion or simply listen without being pressured to share.
Holiday Mental Health Podcasts
- Holiday Stress and Mental Health — Mayo Clinic Talks
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Psychiatrist Dr. Mark Frye discusses common holiday stressors and why people may experience more anxiety or sadness during the season. The conversation also addresses overscheduling, sleep, eating patterns, alcohol use, expectations, and maintaining routines. - Managing Holiday Stress — Licensed 2 Spill
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Two therapists discuss anxiety, complicated family dynamics, emotional triggers, boundaries, and the pressure to appear fine during holiday gatherings. It is especially useful for preparing emotionally before spending extended time with difficult relatives. - When Holidays Hurt
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A longer discussion with mental-health professionals about grief, loneliness, family dynamics, job loss, emotional triggers, and getting through a holiday season that feels more painful than celebratory. - Grief During the Holidays — Colors of the Mind
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A personal discussion of how familiar traditions, memories, music, and family activities can intensify grief. It focuses on adjusting expectations and finding ways to get through celebrations when an important person is missing.
TED & TEDx Talks for Holiday Mental Health
- How to Protect Your Emotional Health During the Holidays — Guy Winch
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Psychologist Guy Winch focuses directly on holiday emotional health. He discusses family stress, boundaries, loneliness, heartbreak, expectations, and ways to make deliberate decisions about what you will and will not take on during the season. - How to Support Yourself (and Others) Through Grief — Nina Westbrook
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A useful talk for people grieving during the holidays or trying to support someone who is. It explains why grief can involve many different forms of loss and how support can be more useful when it does not pressure someone to recover according to another person’s timeline.
