4 Ways To Support Teens During The Holiday Season
Takeaways:
- While teens may seem excited for the holidays, the reality of changing routines and intensifying family dynamics can result in high stress moments.
- Supporting your teens during the holiday season can actually calm the entire family system and reduce stress for everyone.
- Using coping skills, like grounding techniques and taking breaks, can help both you and them enjoy the holidays a lot more.
Teen Stress During the Holidays
Everyone wants to craft the perfect cozy, magical holiday season. Unfortunately, real-life stressors don’t stop because you’ve added to your family’s emotional workload. When it comes to teen stress during the holidays, they experience just as much tension during the holidays — even though they may not be in charge of planning or hosting. For them, the pressure of comparison with others, school midterms, and rising intensity within the family group can be very stressful, too.
Learn more about what may be bothering your teen and how you can take an active role when coping with anxiety during the holidays from the experts at Ascend.
-
Feeling Guilt or Inadequacy
Your teen’s stress during the holidays may be caused by family expectations or comparisons to how others are celebrating. Feeling guilty, feeling like they’re not good enough, or trying to ensure their perfection adds a ton of tension to their day-to-day life.
What You Can Do
Be warm and intentional during every get-together, making sure your teen knows that you love them and feel proud of who they are. If you’re already verbal about your approval, make sure you validate them more frequently to reinforce positive support.
-
Increased Fatigue or Pain
Teens who are coping with anxiety during the holidays may experience physical symptoms brought on by stressful emotions. Unexplained headaches or stomach issues are often the first signs of anxiety.
What You Can Do
It’s time to slow everything down. Don’t dismiss their physical symptoms or expect them to maintain holiday cheer. When you address your teen’s stress during the holidays, you create space for them to be honest about what they’re feeling and discover the underlying cause of their concerns.
-
Disruptive Behavior
During the holidays, routines often disappear. This means that much of the structure that helps teens maintain their emotional regulation is gone. The lack of routine can increase teen’s stress during the holidays and cause emotional outbursts.
What You Can Do
If you realize that your teen is relying on routine and feel destabilized, it may be time to create consistency during their winter break. Build a flexible routine that reinforces wake-up and bedtimes, but with built-in windows for holiday events to keep them grounded.
-
Continued School Stress
Just because it’s winter break, doesn’t mean your teen isn’t thinking about school. They may have assignments to submit after break is over or be focused on college application deadlines. Cataloguing and delivering on these expectations while attending events or helping host gatherings can intensify your teen’s stress during the holidays.
What You Can Do
The main strategy to help your teen here revolves around identifying what they can and can’t control. Once they know where they can take action, you can encourage them to focus there instead of spending energy worrying about something they can’t influence.
Find Additional Support
If you find that your teen’s stress during the holidays is getting out of control, it may be time to help them reset. Consider residential treatment for an intensive emotional adjustment, or an outpatient program to introduce therapy without disrupting too much of their everyday life. You might even consider weekly or virtual therapy that keeps your teen on track without taking them away from home.
Wondering about the right path for your teen? Reach out to our admissions team today for more information.
