Navigating Family Gatherings: 4 Tips for Protecting Your Mental Health

The family holidays you typically see depicted in films are filled with warmth, togetherness, and good memories. In reality, we all know that navigating family events during the holiday season isn’t such a fairytale. 

Because of this, it’s not unusual to feel anxious or depressed around the holidays.

Fortunately, there are ways you can approach family gatherings during Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year’s, and all the major upcoming holidays.

At Clarity Psychiatric Care, our compassionate team can help you create a plan to sail smoothly through the holidays with your family. 

The unique stress of the holiday family dynamic

We have high expectations for our holidays to look picture-perfect. We should be able to look forward to fun times with family members we may not get to visit with often, enjoy the special excitement children exude at this time of year, and relish relaxing meals. 

However, the holidays can also be quite stressful. Our social calendars fill up quickly, we may not feel the most energetic because of pushing ourselves or staying up too late. Our holiday to-do lists always seem endless as well.

All these things conspire to put us on edge before we even step into any family gathering.

Now, throw in your disagreeable uncle who’s made dropping controversial conversational takes an art form, your sister’s out-of-control kids, and your perfectionist niece’s impossibly high standards for decorations, food, and just about everything else. 

It’s a recipe for a potential blowup.

Our advice for preserving your peace during the holidays

We’ve compiled a helpful list that can assist you at your next holiday family gathering.

1. Practice self-care

It all starts with you. Your experience with your loved ones at special holiday events will go much better if you’re well-rested, feeling centered and calm, and hold off on things that aren’t good for you. 

Try to make sure you’re eating well, getting enough exercise, and staying in your routines as much as you can, despite all the holiday chaos. 

Practicing mindfulness techniques, like meditation, and keeping your schedule clear before any big family event helps you stay more relaxed and better able to focus on the positives of each family member — even the difficult ones!

2. Watch your alcohol intake

In addition to eating tons of goodies during the holiday, it’s also a time we may imbibe alcohol a bit too much.

Limiting your alcohol intake or avoiding it entirely means that you’ll be less uninhibited and the chances are reduced that you'll “take the bait” if someone lobs a zinger, provocative statement, or criticism your way.

Instead, indulge in a delicious mocktail, of which there are many to choose from these days.

The same advice goes for drugs. If you have a history of alcohol or drug misuse, we’re here to help with that too, by working with you to develop healthy, effective coping strategies at particularly challenging times, like the holiday season.

3. Become a master of redirection

It may seem like some family members are determined to stir up the pot by touching on controversial topics like politics or religion, or they may be critical or feel competitive with certain people.

Gently redirecting and changing the subject can work wonders and help your event remain in the “safe” zone. 

It’s also perfectly alright to be more direct and say something like “Let’s keep our conversational topics limited to ones that are easier and lighter.”

After all, a holiday family social event isn’t the place to try to convert everyone into sharing your point of view.

4. Turn the mirror on yourself and have a sense of humor

No one is perfect, and chances are that you might even irritate or trigger people, just like they do you! Try to approach family events keeping this in mind because it may help you build your tolerance toward others.

Bringing humor into a conversation or interaction that’s turned tense can be a potent way of escalating the situation. 

Remember, our team is here to help you navigate the holiday season through a wide variety of treatments, from counseling and responsible medication management to helping with a traumatic event that may be related to your family history.   

Contact Clarity Psychiatric Care at 856-428-1260 to schedule an appointment so you can feel good about approaching the holidays with your family, or book one online.