العربية
Christmas, New Year holidays making you sad? This is what you need to know – Psychologist, Dr. Harry, in Gulf News
The end-of-year holidays are usually a merry business, full of family-time, good food and laughter-infused moments. They are also slathered with an agitating anxiety, because it means coming face to face with people you haven’t seen in a while, meeting people who have few filters – which can mean ill-timed unfortunate jokes – and somehow confronting the fact the life isn’t exactly the way you envisioned last year […]
If you are hosting a party, it can mean juggling many hates – friend, firefighter and chef. And if you are deciding travel plans, you may find the long lines and little control you have over other people’s homes a tad disconcerting.
Mass gatherings can also be intimidating if you are not used to it. Dr Harry Horgan, Clinical Psychologist, German Neuroscience Center, classifies the feeling people get during these holidays as a more social anxiety. “Social anxiety is the most commonly experienced form of anxiety for people during the Christmas holidays. Social anxiety is characterised by a fear of evaluation by others in social contexts. Whether it be with work colleagues at a staff party or time spent with family, there is an increased expectation of social interaction outside of our day-today socializing,” he says.
The good news is, there are many ways to mitigate the panic attacks that you feel might follow […]
Risk/reward analysis: Dr Horgan goes a step further, when it comes to being realistic. He says: “A good approach is to develop an awareness of the specific circumstances in which social anxiety arises. In which of these scheduled occasions does anxiety represent a price worth paying for benefits? For example, feeling closer and more connected to family may be worth experiencing anxiety for. However, there may be other situations where it is a less worthwhile expenditure,” he adds […]
Read the full original article in Gulf News
