Stress. Anxiety. Depression. Consider them the least-wanted gifts of the holiday season. For some unfortunate revelers, they arrive with the Christmas season as surely as carolers, jammed stores and growing credit card balances. However, area therapists say there are a few strategies that can help stem the sometimes negative emotional effects of the period from Christmas to New Year’s.

UNLV PRACTICE, the university’s community mental health training clinic, has opened its new Rancho office, which is dedicated to the treatment of youths and adolescents.

September is Suicide Prevention Month. Suicide has long been a problem in Nevada.

For most of us, the concept of hoarding brings to mind one of two things: 1. The 11-season A&E reality show Hoarders, which “features a team of experts working to tackle some of the biggest, most extreme and most challenging hoards in America,” or 2. Friends who remark of their organized collections—vinyl records or Barbie dolls or whatever—“I’m such a hoarder.”

Even in years without a global pandemic, catastrophic weather events, and other 2020 phenomena, many people find the holidays stressful, exhausting, or depressing. According to the American Psychological Association, 44% of women and 33% of men surveyed feel stressed during the holidays. The holiday blues strike people experiencing the forced joyfulness and expectations of the season.

COVID-19 has upended the way we work. Many are working from home, stressed and attempting to juggle a range of personal and professional responsibilities, leading to an increase in anxiety, depression and burnout. To ensure that companies and their employees are performing optimally—not just existing—during this time, leaders must address the mental health challenges that employees are facing.