Why the Holidays Can Worsen OCD and Anxiety — and How an IOP in Austin, TX Can Help You Regroup
The holiday season often brings images of joy, connection, and celebration. Yet for many who live with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and anxiety, this time of year can feel like anything but a break. Changes in routine, complicated family dynamics, and constant decision-making can leave the nervous system overwhelmed. If you’re noticing that symptoms feel louder or harder to manage, you’re not alone, and support is available. An adult IOP in Austin, TX, can provide the structured, evidence-based care needed to help you navigate mental health during the holidays. It can also help you reconnect with your coping skills and regain your sense of balance during this demanding season.
Why Holiday Stressors Can Intensify OCD and Anxiety
The very things that define the holidays—travel, packed schedules, social expectations, and endless decisions—can be overwhelming. These challenges are especially difficult for individuals with OCD or anxiety. Travel alone can trigger a spike in checking behaviors: locks, appliances, packing lists, travel confirmations, and safety-related routines. Disrupted sleep, irregular meals, and overstimulating environments can further heighten emotional reactivity. While the holidays don’t typically create new OCD symptoms, they do intensify existing ones.
Someone with social anxiety may feel more distressed by parties or work events. If checking OCD is already present, leaving home for days at a time can intensify compulsions. Similarly, navigating potlucks or unfamiliar restaurants can exacerbate symptoms for those living with fears around illness or vomiting. Even more specific themes, such as emotional contamination OCD, can feel more prominent during the holidays. In this form of OCD, distress is triggered by the emotions or states of others, especially in crowded, emotionally charged settings.
This Time of Year Can Also Bring an Increase in Guilt, Shame, and Self-Blame.
When you’re staying with relatives or sharing small spaces, masking symptoms becomes harder. You may overcommit out of guilt or pressure to “keep everyone happy.” OCD often creates an inflated sense of responsibility. This means even small moments, like a gift not being well-received or plans not going perfectly, can trigger intense self-criticism.
High-functioning individuals often hide worsening symptoms, which, unfortunately, delays seeking support and allows cycles of avoidance and compulsion to grow stronger. Providers at Austin Anxiety and OCD Specialists see these patterns every year; not because people are “regressing,” but because seasonal stress places extra strain on an already sensitive nervous system.
The Science Behind Seasonal Stress and Symptom Flare-Ups
When OCD and anxiety increase during stressful seasons, there are real neurological reasons behind your symptoms. The amygdala is the part of the brain responsible for detecting threats. It becomes hyperactivated, sending danger signals even when the situation isn’t dangerous. Meanwhile, the Prefrontal Cortex (PFC), which normally helps regulate those signals, has a harder time managing the amygdala’s response.
This internal imbalance activates the Autonomic Nervous System. It leads to familiar physical symptoms like a racing heart, muscle tension, shortness of breath, and digestive discomfort. Hormones like cortisol, serotonin, and melatonin become disrupted, affecting mood, energy, and sleep cycles. And when you add overstimulation like holiday noise, crowds, family dynamics, and emotional suppression, the brain and body have even fewer resources left to cope.
The Importance of Intervening Early
When symptoms start to spiral, the instinct is often to pull back from what feels overwhelming. Avoiding events or people, rearranging schedules to reduce discomfort, or leaning into compulsions may offer a moment of relief. However, they ultimately reinforce the anxiety and OCD cycle. The longer avoidance and compulsions go unaddressed, the more entrenched they become. Early intervention helps disrupt these patterns before they escalate.
Connecting with an anxiety therapist in Austin, TX, can provide you with the essential tools to interrupt spirals and understand the neuroscience behind your experiences. This proactive step helps prevent symptoms from snowballing, allowing you to navigate the season with greater confidence and ease. Research consistently shows that early intervention leads to better outcomes, especially for OCD. Many people wait until the holidays are over to reach out for help. However, getting support now can make the rest of the season feel more manageable and far less overwhelming.
How an IOP in Austin, TX Offers Structured Support
For some, the intensity of symptoms during the holidays exceeds what weekly therapy can adequately support. In those moments, an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) can be a transformative option. Unlike traditional weekly sessions, an adult IOP in Austin, TX, provides several hours of targeted therapy multiple days a week. This approach offers more structure and consistent feedback during a high-stress period.
Programs at Austin Anxiety and OCD Specialists incorporate evidence-based treatments such as Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). They also use other proven modalities to help with OCD and anxiety. This level of care allows you to build skills quickly, work through triggers in real-time, and receive support before symptoms worsen.
Group Therapy Also Plays an Important Role in an IOP.
These sessions provide a supportive environment for connection, shared understanding, and accountability. Many people find relief in realizing they’re not the only ones struggling, especially during a season that often pressures people to appear joyful and put-together. This structured environment can help individuals with OCD or anxiety stay regulated, interrupt compulsions, and feel more grounded; even when holiday stress is at its peak.
Practical Tips for Navigating the Holidays
While professional support is incredibly helpful, there are also steps you can take immediately to ease symptoms:
1. Set Clear and Kind Boundaries
You don’t have to attend every event or please every person. Instead of letting anxiety or OCD make choices for you, try grounding decisions in your core values. If something doesn’t align with what matters most, it’s okay to decline.
2. Keep a Consistent Routine
Routines help regulate your nervous system. Try to maintain steady sleep, regular meals, movement, and moments of rest; even when your schedule feels chaotic. Predictability creates stability.
3. Set Realistic Expectations
Perfection isn’t the goal. Focus on what genuinely brings meaning, and allow yourself to release the pressure for flawless holidays. The less energy spent chasing perfection, the more room you have for connection and enjoyment.
If symptoms begin feeling unmanageable, connecting with an anxiety therapist or reaching out to an IOP in Austin, TX can help you regroup and regain balance.
You Deserve Support and Peace
Navigating the holiday season with OCD or anxiety is hard, but you don’t have to do it alone. The challenges you’re experiencing are valid, and the distress you feel is not a personal failing. Evidence-based care, compassionate support, and structured treatment can help you move toward relief. An anxiety therapist can help you understand what’s happening internally.
For those needing more structure, an adult IOP in Austin, TX can offer the intensive support needed to help you stabilize and heal through high-stress periods. Whether you’re struggling with checking OCD, social anxiety, emotional contamination OCD, or seasonal overwhelm, help is available. You deserve peace, not just during the holidays, but all year long.
Ready to Feel More in Control With an Adult IOP in Austin, TX?
If the holiday season has intensified your OCD or anxiety—whether through checking, social fears, or patterns like emotional contamination—you don’t have to navigate it on your own. The symptoms you’re experiencing are real, and there is effective, evidence-based care available.
At Austin Anxiety and OCD Specialists, our adult IOP in Austin, TX, offers structured, compassionate support designed to help you stabilize when symptoms feel overwhelming. Through ERP, ACT, and individualized guidance, you can learn to interrupt compulsions, practice skills safely, and rebuild confidence in a supportive environment.
If you’re ready to take the next step:
Reach out today by calling 512-246-7225 or emailing hello@austinanxiety.com to schedule a free consultation.
Learn more about our IOP in Austin, TX, and how our team tailors treatment to your needs during high-stress seasons and beyond.
Start a path toward relief with clinicians who specialize in anxiety and OCD and who understand how challenging this time of year can be.
You deserve steadiness, support, and relief; not just during the holidays, but year-round. Help is available, and healing is possible. Let our team walk alongside you.
Mental Health Services at Austin Anxiety and OCD Specialists in Austin, TX
At Austin Anxiety and OCD Specialists, we understand that anxiety, OCD, and related conditions show up differently for everyone. That’s why our support goes far beyond our adult IOP in Austin, TX, offering flexible, research-backed treatment options for children, teens, and adults at every stage of their healing process. Our clinicians help individuals navigate a wide range of concerns, including OCD, panic disorder, social anxiety, phobias, PTSD, generalized anxiety, selective mutism, emetophobia, depression, separation anxiety, tics, and body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs).
In addition to individual therapy, we provide specialized services such as parent coaching, SPACE treatment for families, group therapy, and psychological evaluations. For clients across Texas, our secure online therapy option brings the same high-quality, evidence-based care directly to your home.
We’re proud to offer Camp Courage, a unique therapeutic program designed to help kids and teens gradually face fears, build confidence, and develop meaningful coping skills in a supportive, collaborative environment.
Whether you’re seeking weekly therapy, considering more structured support through an adult IOP in Austin, TX, or looking for ongoing care, our team provides compassionate, judgment-free treatment grounded in evidence-based practices. We’re here to help you and your family move toward lasting growth, resilience, and emotional well-being.
Meet the Compassionate Team Supporting Your IOP Journey
Behind every successful IOP experience is a team of clinicians who genuinely care about the people they work with. At Austin Anxiety and OCD Specialists, our program is guided by professionals who understand the complexities of anxiety, OCD, and related concerns—and who are committed to helping you build confidence, stability, and long-term resilience. Each clinician brings specialized training, clinical expertise, and a deep commitment to meeting you exactly where you are.
Dr. Samantha Myhre, PhD – Assistant Clinical Director & IOP Coordinator
Dr. Myhre has extensive experience treating anxiety and OCD using evidence-based approaches. She is especially interested in mindfulness, depression, and self-worth, and works with clients ages six and up. Her style is collaborative, warm, and empowering—creating a space where clients can build emotional understanding and a stronger sense of confidence.
Ann Elise provides therapy for adults and holds advanced certification in perinatal mental health. She has deep experience supporting individuals through anxiety, OCD, trauma, and the challenges of postpartum transitions. Her work integrates CBT, ACT, ERP, and EMDR, offering her clients a thoughtful and compassionate path toward emotional balance and resilience.
Ayla specializes in working with children, teens, and families navigating OCD, ADHD, anxiety, and behavioral concerns. Using CBT, ERP, and PCIT, she takes a strengths-based, family-focused approach that helps young people face fears, express emotions, and build confidence in daily life.
Dr. Youssef primarily supports adolescents and young adults working through OCD, anxiety, and depression. Her empathic and culturally responsive approach ensures each client feels seen, understood, and supported. She tailors every treatment plan to the individual, helping them move toward meaningful growth at their own pace.
No matter your age or background, our IOP team is here to support you with compassionate, evidence-based care. Together, we’ll walk alongside you as you work toward steadiness, healing, and lasting emotional well-being.