Mental Health and the Holidays

As the holiday season brings excitement and stress, students and a counselor share their opinions on how changing schedules, pressure from family, and busy schedules can affect students’ mental health and overall excitement for breaks.

“I think holidays definitely do help my mental health, it’s a nice break and step away from school and just the stress, either with people or just with homework and schoolwork and I think it’s very refreshing,” Senior Corbin Tietjen said.

Holidays can help students’ mental health, giving them a much needed break, but at the same time, the pressure from family members’ expectations and plans can also give a negative holiday experience.

“I think sometimes there can definitely be pressure from family gatherings on certain sides of the family, or certain complications that happened with that family member if I’m going to their house. I think there could easily be tension in the air because of past experiences for many people, but overall I think I’ve had good experiences in the past,” Senior James Young said.

Between family expectations and the pressure to make the most of the break, many students aren’t alone in feeling overwhelmed. School counselor Mr. Jones sees these patterns every year, and he says the roots of holiday stress can go deeper than people realize. Jones explained that even the shift in routine can be enough to throw students off balance.

“As far as the common sources of stress, even just a change of schedule, that alone causes stress just because it changes up your daily routine, sleep patterns, things like that, as well as lots of different family dynamics. There’s lots of different things,” said Jones. “Everyone glamorizes the life that they’re living. ‘Look at me, look how awesome this is,’ And when you don’t have that amazingness in your life, that can be a very difficult thing to deal with.”

He added that breaks are an important opportunity for students to take care of themselves before heading into unpredictable family gatherings or upcoming school demands.

“Well, not just during the break, but anytime that you’re able to take care of yourself. I think that that does help with resilience… So if you can do something for yourself, just, you know, take a moment for yourself, whatever it might be, listen to your favorite song, read a book, you know, do something to recharge your batteries, that would be the best thing that you could do once again, break or no break, like anytime you can spend time on yourself, it would be positive,” said Jones.

As students prepare to return to school, Jones said small habits can make a big difference in resetting mentally and emotionally.

“Do something that you enjoy, find an activity, exercise is extremely, extremely good… And I would say make sure you get some good sleep,” Jones said. “If you can fit in a couple veggies, fit in a nap, you know, stuff like that, that would be really beneficial.”