Social anxiety during the holidays means you dread the end-of-year office party, New Year’s at the neighbours, or Christmas with the family.

This is a time to look at your potential instead of fixating on your historical performance. If you’re already predicting moments of awkwardness or drinking too much, you’ll decline invitations during this holiday season. 

Yes, it’s a tempting thought, but I will ask you to squash it. 

As you may or may not know, avoiding social anxiety only increases it. It’s an interesting paradox but very much rooted in reality.

Now, social anxiety during the holidays can be exacerbated for two reasons. 

The first one is that we want to end the year well. Whether at work (looking ahead to a promotion!) or home (keeping our relationships intact), we want to put our best foot forward, especially when we mingle with everyone else (either voluntarily or forced). 

We’re proactive in reducing our chances of being negatively judged.

Alternatively, our social anxiety could also be heightened because we know we cannot put our best foot forward. We see our shortcomings, assess our mental space and energy levels, and know we’ll fall short. 

We’re proactive in preparing ourselves for a downfall.

These are two sides of the same coin.

On the one side, if you want to end the year on a good note, you’ll place high expectations on yourself and go into performance mode. 

Everything you do will be 10x. Light! Camera! Action! That’s social anxiety’s preferred mode because it’s happily waiting for you to mess up. You’ll do anything and everything to outdo yourself. 

For example, you might overextend yourself financially to either host a party, purchase expensive gifts to stand out, or adorn yourself in glitter and gold. 

You’ll want to redirect all the attention to the assets and materials to avoid feeling stupid and out of place.

If you’re going into the end-of-the-year office party feeling dejected and hating that co-worker who got the promotion over you, chances are you’ll be greeted by social anxiety at the door.

If you’re not in a good place mentally, emotionally, or even physically, your social anxiety will remind you and laugh as it compares you to everyone else who has their shit together. 

Your negative body language will follow you, and you’ll grab onto any safety behavior you’re prone to (to avoid talking to anyone). You’ll probably make a pretty bad impression overall.

Social anxiety during the holidays can be a monster.

Its goal is to make everything awkward and embarrass you so that it takes it all into the New Year. It wants you to remember how big of a goof you were during the holidays so that it continues to stick around.

Remember, its sole purpose is to latch onto you as much as possible because you’re its power source.

So, if you’re dreading the New Year’s Eve party, the end-of-year office party, or the Christmas gathering, here are some things you need to jot down in the palm of your hand.

You’ll walk into any room ready to face it with more conviction and confidence.

Four ways to reduce social anxiety during the holidays:

1. Don’t down the alcohol

If you’re shy by nature, it’s understandable that you want to grab a glass of wine, hoping it will liven you up. That’s OK!

Sometimes, having a little help is good, but if this is your modus operandi, where you drink because it’s the ONLY way you open up to conversations, stay away from the alcohol.

The last thing you want to happen is to spill the beans on something your manager told you privately or overshare to the point where you feel ashamed of yourself.

Those are tricky moments to recover from, so before you grab a drink, think about the future you.

2. Pay attention to your safety (crutch) behaviours

Alcohol is a safety behaviour. It’s easy to blame the wine should anything happen, but that’s not the impression you want to make. If you see it as a crutch, you’ll be in better control of it.

Another safety behaviour is having your phone in your hands at all times. It makes it easier to check out an awkward conversation or find yourself apart from the group, scrolling your feed.

You should think about what other safety behaviours you have a habit of and reduce them during these holiday parties.