Do you feel sadder around Christmas?

Christmas is approaching. There are decorations, lights, movies filled with love and joy, good food, board games, warming wine, hugs. All very beautiful, at least in theory. However, not everyone finds these disruptions (even if temporary) to the rhythm of their lives positive. Some people experience this period as an emotional nightmare with great difficulty. For this mix of often multifaceted and complex feelings, the term Christmas blues has been coined, referring to a form of melancholy and sadness that occurs before, during, and/or after the Christmas holidays. It tends to affect people who dwell on the past and struggle to accept changes and uncertainty.

Symptoms and Physical Causes

The main symptoms of Christmas blues include a deep sense of anxiety, sadness, stress, as well as physical symptoms such as headaches, insomnia, negative thoughts, fatigue, anxiety, and loneliness. But what causes these feelings during Christmas? To answer that, we need to analyze the situation from two perspectives. The first is of physical origin: a team of clinical psychologists from the University of Kansas published research in Medical Hypotheses suggesting not to overindulge in Christmas foods because the increase in sugars in delicious festive meals can trigger physical and psychological inflammatory processes linked to depressive illnesses. Additionally, the decrease in daylight hours and the disruption of the sleep-wake cycle increase the risk of anxiety, anger, and intrusive thoughts.

Psychological Causes

From a psychological perspective, we must admit that Christmas can be stressful and full of obligations! For example, a 30-year-old single woman at the family table may not escape the inevitable question of when she will bring a partner home to settle down. How do you think she will feel, thinking that everyone has achieved their goals except her? Or teenagers who desire expensive items from parents who cannot afford them, how will they metabolize this lack? How much loneliness will those who have chosen to spend the holidays alone feel, while the whole world around them seems to shout that you cannot be alone on Christmas Eve, that it's sad, that you need family? In short, Christmas sadness is not linked to the concept of Christmas itself but rather to everything surrounding it, including a world of beliefs that fuel an unattainable ideal of perfection and psychophysical disruption to which our body is not accustomed.

How to Manage It?

For Christmas sadness, it is advisable to always seek professional help from a psychologist or psychotherapist. They can work with the patient to find the right solutions and acquire useful coping strategies to overcome the moment. Asking for help is a manifestation of strength, not weakness. In the meantime, some precautions can help manage Christmas. For example, you can try to maintain a routine as similar as possible to your daily life without completely disrupting your schedule. The same goes for food. Do not change your habits; eat and drink what you prefer and listen to your body. Similarly, experts recommend not interrupting your workouts or keeping the body in motion. Even a simple daily walk can help. Also, set a budget for gifts that aligns with what you CAN spend, not what you feel you MUST spend. Give gifts without stress. Create your traditions, compile a list of things you would like to do. In short, allow yourself to be yourself, spend time with those who make you happy, and do not feel obligated to do anything: discover a new way to be happy.

 
Disclaimer: It is important to distinguish between Christmas blues and seasonal affective disorder. The former is a melancholic state related to the Christmas period, while the seasonal affective disorder is a clinical disorder that remits with the arrival of spring/summer.