hallo-blog day 5

 Hello foolish mortals! Welcome back to my blog! I'm celebrating my 5 year anniversary and today I'm featuring my fifth most read blog of all time:

Mental Health and the Holidays- feeling festive, staying focused

This blog topic is perfect for us right now as we all head into the season that brings us so many holidays, fun events & family reunions. It's such a great time of year but not for everyone. Although contrary to popular belief, suicide rates do not increase during the holiday season, there are some small studies showing that symptoms of anxiety and depression due tend to increase around Thanksgiving every year in the United States. According to Psychology Today;

One survey by the American Psychological Association uncovered some interesting data about the holiday blues:

While the majority of people in the survey reported feelings of happiness, love, and high spirits over the holidays, those emotions were often accompanied by feelings of fatigue, stress, irritability, bloating, and sadness.

Thirty-eight percent of people surveyed said their stress level increased during the holiday season. Participants listed the top stressors: lack of time, lack of money, commercialism, the pressures of gift-giving, and family gatherings.

Surprisingly, 56 percent of respondents reported they experienced the most amount of stress at work. Only 29 percent experienced greater amounts of stress at home.

While these statistics are promising, let's remember that 2020 is whole different beast and we need to give ourselves and each other much more patience this year than ever before. 

In what ways do you destress during the holidays? I'm using all of my extra energy I have this year to really decorate and get into it. It's the best I've felt in years and we are having a ball! Thanks for stopping by today and I'll see you back here tomorrow.