Anxiety During The Holidays

Dec 16, 2019 | Clinical Psychotherpy

Young beautiful woman wearing Christmas Santa hat depressed and worry for distress, crying angry and afraid. Sad expression.

 

Anxiety and depression during the holidays are more common than most people think. At Kevon Owen Christian Counseling, Clinical Psychotherapy the team of mental health professionals can help you manage your problems with understanding and empathy. The staff knows that the holidays can cause stress and anxiety, but for many people, the level of anxiety can become intolerable. Anxiety and depression also foster feelings of guilt because of the religious nature of the holidays, and that can aggravate the mental turmoil.

Learn to Relieve the Holiday Pressure

Kevon Owen operates from two offices: Clinical Psychotherapy Edmond Oklahoma and Clinical Psychotherapy Jones Oklahoma. The staff and doctors understand the feeling of anxiety and guilt, and they can help you with various psychotherapy techniques and medications to relieve extreme stress. There are also techniques that you can use to relieve stress and get through the holiday season.

Some of the techniques you can do for self-help include taking off some of the pressure. Holiday parties, traveling and attending family gatherings are common stressors that can have unintended effects that produce anxiety, depression or both. The following tips can help you avoid some of the root causes of holiday stress:

• Avoid setting high expectations, and try to roll with the flow of good and bad moments.
• Understand that no plans are perfect, and you are only human.
• Try to avoid friends and family members who have social anxieties that could ignite your own.
• Work to make others feel good to relieve the stress on you to do the same.
• Avoid drugs and alcohol because they exacerbate both anxiety and depression.
• Know when to say no – ir is not necessary to do anything that makes you sad, stressed out or uncomfortable.
• Don’t over schedule yourself; most families typically try to do more than they should and treat the holidays like a marathon..
• Don’t feel obligated to buy gifts for everyone if you can’t afford them or simply don’t wish to buy gifts for casual acquaintances.

Getting Professional Therapy and Treatment

When you find the holidays overwhelming, it can be very helpful to talk out your problems with a sympathetic listener – especially one who understands that religious feelings can complicate holiday depression. At Kevon Owen Christian Counseling the staff can provide active, trained listeners who give you the social support that you desperately need during the critical holiday season. The causes and symptoms of holiday anxiety and depression include:

• Unrealistic expectations
• Excessive commitments
• Financial pressure
• Seasonal affective disorder, or SAD
• Excessive drinking
• Insomnia
• Headaches
• Overeating

Clinical Psychotherapy Oklahoma City Oklahoma

The team at Kevon Owen offers counseling, support services, psychotherapy and medication as needed to help you overcome your holiday issues. Mild cases of anxiety can often be resolved with simple steps to relieve the pressure of holiday excesses. If your case is serious, the physicians assistant and staff have the tools to manage even the most extreme cases of holiday depression.

Call or contact Kevonowen.com at 405-740-1249 or https://www.kevonowen.com to schedule a confidential consultation. The practice serves the Oklahoma City, Jones and Edmond Oklahoma areas. You don’t have to suffer from anxiety and depression just because the holidays have rolled around once again.

 

Upcoming Books

Recent Post

Parent-Child Therapy: What It Is and Who It Helps

Parent child therapy, specifically Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), is a structured, evidence-based behavioral treatment designed for children roughly ages 2 to 7 who show significant defiance, aggression, tantrums, or emotional dysregulation. It works by...

Step-by-Step CBT Techniques to Overcome Negative Thinking

The step-by-step cognitive behavioral therapy process for a negative mindset moves from catching an automatic thought to naming the distortion driving it, examining the evidence, writing a balanced alternative, and testing that alternative through a small behavioral...

Cognitive Restructuring Therapy: What It Is and How It Works

Cognitive restructuring therapy is a structured clinical intervention, most commonly delivered within Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), in which a person identifies, examines, and replaces inaccurate or unhelpful thoughts that drive emotional distress. Cognitive...

Panic Attacks: Grounding Skills That Help in the Moment

Panic Attacks: Grounding Skills That Help in the Moment November 2, 2026 | Anxiety Counseling | Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Introduction: Finding Stability When Panic Strikes A panic attack can turn an ordinary moment into an overwhelming experience. A racing heartbeat,...

Rewire negative thoughts: 7 CBT techniques that work

Learning to rewire negative thoughts is one of the most evidence-supported goals in modern mental health care. The brain can form and strengthen new neural pathways, a capacity called neuroplasticity, and that capacity persists across the lifespan, though the pace and...

CBT Thought Restructuring: How to Reframe Your Thinking

CBT thought restructuring is a structured process in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in which you identify an automatic negative thought, test it against actual evidence, and replace it with a more accurate, balanced interpretation. The goal is not positive...

Faith-Based or Secular Therapy? A Clear Guide to Choosing

Choosing between faith-based and secular mental health care does not have to feel like picking a side. The right provider delivers both clinical rigor and respect for your convictions. The tension many people feel when weighing these options typically comes from a...

Boundaries for Beginners: How to Say No Without Guilt

 Boundaries for Beginners: How to Say No Without Guilt Published October 29, 2026 | Mental Health & Wellness | Christian Counseling Oklahoma City Why Saying No Can Feel So Difficult Saying no should be simple. Yet for many people, turning down a request can...

Christian Counseling Benefits That Go Beyond Secular Therapy

The benefits of Christian counseling over secular approaches are real, documented, and meaningful, particularly for clients whose faith is central to their identity. Peer-reviewed research generally finds that religiously adapted psychotherapy performs about as well...

Religious psychotherapy explained: faith meets clinical care

Religious psychotherapy is a clinically structured form of care that treats a client's faith, spiritual beliefs, and religious worldview as genuine therapeutic assets, not variables to neutralize or bracket out of treatment. It is not pastoral counseling, and it is...