​While the holiday season is supposed to be festive, create happy feelings, etc., that doesn’t mean it will automatically enhance our mental health. In fact, as many of us are painfully aware, it is not uncommon for people to feel angry, irritable, stressed out, and depressed at year’s end. Stressors include lack of time, money, too much commercialism, and pressures of giving gifts and being at family gatherings. So, if that happens, let’s find out how to turn it back around again!

Most of us can remember when we were teenagers, right?! It can be an extremely difficult time of life. Hormones may be raging, and moods can match that! Each person has their own unique story to tell. Anxiety and depression often run rampant during the teen years.

Did you know that over 260 million people across the globe have anxiety disorders? And it is a fact that nearly every person, no matter where they live, come from, across the globe, experiences depression at some point in their lives. When levels and types of anxiety rise to a certain level, it becomes a diagnosable mental health disorder. You are at this time at a much higher risk of experiencing physiological problems, too. In general, improving your nutrition while decreasing junk foods and drinks, as well as overly processed foods, getting more and better-quality sleep, exercising, and making attempts to better manage your stress all help.

In teens anxiety and depression may look a little different than how adults experience it. Teens often do not tell us how they are feeling. Some things you can look for, especially if your teen cannot or will not identify what is bothering him/her, are changes in eating, sleeping, levels of energy, and physical complaints such as having a headache and/or a stomachache.