Shayon: My name's Shayon. Maja: My name is Maya.
Shayon: And today we're going to be talking about mental
health throughout the Christmas holidays
Maja: It kind of is across the board but Christmas is stressful in some way or
another for everyone people might not show it but it is for sure there there's
a lot of kind of weird pressure put on Christmas that it has to be perfect and
it has to be like really wonderful and happy all the time and that's just quite
unrealistic.
Shayon: Being around friends and family can be hard as well?
Maja: It can be really difficult if you're not having a good time you don't want them to have to
see that you don't want to make other people's experience not so good your
friends might be looking like they're having such a great time that you don't
want to even talk to them about it.
Shayon: Do you feel like social media might portray
some Christmases to be the best?
Maja: There's a very specific version of their lives
that people often put on social media and so it can be really easy to see that
and think that that's the whole picture and therefore that you're the only
person in the world who's not having an amazing day just keep in mind that you
don't know the whole story.
Shayon: Do you think that there is anything that
can help young people?
Maja: If you know that you're going to get asked about school
or you know people are going to want to know kind of what you're doing next
prepare what you might say and so that you're not left completely on the spot
in terms of preparing for more difficult subjects I know that for me a big worry
a lot of the time is I have very visible scars on my arm you know my mom and my
dad know but other family members and extended family members might not and I
don't want them to see that and then ask me questions just making sure that if
people do bring it up I have those kind of planned responses like often I do say
you know I'll tell you about it later I don't want to talk about it right now
it's always stressful but I know that in the end the worst thing that can happen
is that I have to have a conversation that is slightly uncomfortable which is
not that bad in again in the grand scheme of things. Reaching out to my
friends and checking in on how they're doing really helps me to get kind of a
bit of perspective because I then remember that it's not just me in this
slightly like uncomfortable situation there are lots of other people who are
struggling in similar ways.
Shayon: What if the young person has no one
feels like they have no one to talk to?
Maja: Because it is the Christmas period a lot
of kind of mental health services will be closed or more difficult to access so
that can be a really weird time because the person that's usually there for you
to confide in is suddenly not there you can always talk to other services like
Childline is going to be running 24/7 over Christmas
Shayon: What things do you think can help in the moment?
Maja: If you're at home obviously your
bedroom is going to be a go to safe space you can always kind of excuse
yourself and say maybe you don't feel very well or you've got a bit of a
headache if you're not at home asking to go to a quiet room maybe texting a
friend you know you don't need to say I'm feeling really awful you can ask
them what they're doing and just sort of distract yourself other than that it's
really good to kind of have things on your phone that helps you to feel calm
you can always listen to music that you really like
Shayon: What sort of things do you think can help us cope?
Maja: Spending lots of time with
a family member that you feel really sort of safe with can be helpful
especially at the dinner table if there's lots of people that you don't
really know very well as well as setting yourself little goals, at least I you
know stayed there for half an hour like I said I would at least I spoke to you
know three or four family members like I said I would at least I ate with
everyone for a little bit even though it might seem silly or it might seem like
not such a big achievement for you in that moment it is a really big
achievement so make sure that you're gentle with yourself
Shayon: What about if your Christmas holiday or Christmas period doesn't go to plan or
doesn't go to how you imagined it would?
Maja: To just not focus so much on the little
things that can be really upsetting for sure but aren't all that there is it's very
easy to forget that there's kind of so much more around you than just your family.
Shayon: Thank You Maya for coming down and talking to us
Maja: Thank you for having
Shayon: See you next time, thank you bye!
you