Looking after yourself during the holidays

The holiday time can be a time of mixed emotions and experiences. Although you may be feeling excited about certain parts of the season, other aspects might be more stressful, and this is the case for most people.

There are many things about the holiday season that can be stressful such as socialising, buying presents and spending time with family.

Other experiences that can be difficult during the holidays can include managing mental health difficulties such as addiction, eating disorders or depression and anxiety, and living with grief.

If you are feeling worried or overwhelmed coming into the holiday period, you are not alone. Many people feel the same way, and regardless of how you are feeling there are supports available to help.

Getting along with your family during the holidays 

How to get your parent to treat you like an adult

How can I get along with my parents?

How to open up to someone about your mental health

How to combat family member’s casual fatphobia

Talking to my family helped with my depression

Supports when your family doesn’t accept you as LGBTI+

Alcohol during the holidays 

How to deal with day after drinking anxiety

How to feel confident saying no to drinking

How to avoid feeling awkward at a party when you’re not drinking

Recognising flaws in your relationship with alcohol

Drug use during the holidays

Staying sesh safe with drug harm reduction

How to cope with a drug comedown

Signs that your relationship with drug use is problematic

How to help a friend in a drug emergency

Experiencing loneliness during the holidays 

How to handle feeling lonely online

Learning to live with grief

How to cope with losing someone to suicide

Why I found growing up in rural Ireland so difficult

How to handle feelings of loneliness when social distancing

Managing your emotions during the Holidays 

Dealing with depression

Dealing with difficult emotions

10 tips for dealing with stress

9 ways to manage anxiety

10 ways to maintain your positive mental health

My toolkit for managing my anxiety and depression

Mindfulness exercises for supporting your mental health

What can mindfulness meditation do for your mental health?

What is grounding and how can it help me?

How to boost your mood with a mindful outlook

The self-care routine that helps with my social anxiety

How I built a mindfulness practice over lockdown

Feeling overwhelmed and want to talk to someone?

• Get anonymous support 24/7 with our text message support service
• Connect with a trained volunteer who will listen to you, and help you to move forward feeling better
• Free-text SPUNOUT to 50808 to begin
• Find out more about our text message support service

If you are a customer of the 48 or An Post network or cannot get through using the ‘50808’ short code please text HELLO to 086 1800 280 (standard message rates may apply). Some smaller networks do not support short codes like ‘50808’.