Christmas: Festive anxiety is a real thing - psychologist explains how to beat it

While Christmas can be a joyful time, there are those of us who genuinely struggle with the festive period.

Anxiety disorders affect more than 300m people around the world, and their symptoms can be amplified by a busy Christmas period. Christmas Day itself and the packed out social schedule can be some people's worst nightmare.

But Dr Gayle Watts from Turning Tides Psychology says these feelings of anxiety are totally normal - and shared a few tips on how to combat it.

"We place a lot of importance on having a good time and enjoying the celebrations at Christmas," Dr Gayle said. "We are bombarded with advertising from November onwards showing us how to have the perfect Christmas with our friends and family, and it can feel like it’s a lot to live up to. There is a lot of pressure to have the ‘perfect Christmas’ nowadays.

"For many people, one of the most stressful parts of Christmas is spending it with family. In the real world, outside of the sparkly, happy adverts, the reality is that many of us don’t have perfect relationships with our families. At Christmas, we might feel obliged to spend more time than we ordinarily would with people. Even if we get on very well with those people, we can start to feel socially burnt out.

"In fact, many people don't have perfect relationships with their families, and social burnout, especially for introverts, is a real concern during the festive season."

Here are Dr Watts' tips for combatting Christmas anxiety:

Set boundaries

If you feel like spending the whole of Christmas Day with family is going to be too stressful or make you so anxious that you can’t enjoy the day, if possible- plan to spend just a couple of hours with them. If you live alone and are going elsewhere for Christmas Day, you can then take yourself back to your own place things that you want to do for the rest of the day.

Engage in calming and relaxing activities

At Christmas, our drive system is often activated as we rush around doing things and seeing people and our threat system is often activated by all of the stress and anxiety that Christmas can bring. Our soothe system often gets overlooked, so make sure you are spending time trying to activate this system by doing things that are calming and relaxing. Make sure you take time to slow things down.

Discuss anxiety with friends

We often buy into the messaging we get from advertising, showing us what the perfect Christmas should look like. Try and remind yourself that this isn’t reality. You are not the only one who has difficult relationships within their family, or who feels anxious about Christmas. Often an honest, open discussion with friends will reveal that they too experience similar anxieties around Christmas.

Plan something nice you can do alone

Remind yourself that Christmas won’t last forever. Plan something nice, just for yourself in the days following Christmas. Having something to look forward to can help you get through the day itself. This can be as simple as a walk in the countryside, taking yourself on a coffee date, or a luxurious bubble bath.

Take a moment to breathe

Take time out if you start to feel overwhelmed. Take the dog out for a walk, or just take yourself out for a walk. You could even say you are going to make a quick phone call and go into another room for a few minutes to decompress and take some deep breaths.