Why Your Symptoms Get Worse During the Holidays

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If your pain or IBS symptoms tend to flare up during the holidays, it is not random.

Many people notice that symptoms intensify around Christmas, New Year, or other holiday periods, even when diet and routines have not changed dramatically. This can be confusing and frustrating, especially if medical tests show nothing new or abnormal.

The explanation lies in the powerful connection between stress, emotions, and the nervous system. And the holidays tend to amplify all three.

Stress Puts the Body Into Protection Mode

When you feel stressed, the nervous system shifts into fight or flight. This is the body’s built-in survival response. In this state, the brain becomes more alert to potential danger. Because pain is a protection signal, the brain is more likely to turn pain up when stress levels are high.

For people with IBS, this stress response also pulls blood and energy away from digestion. Digestion slows down. Sensitivity increases. Symptoms such as pain, urgency, bloating, and discomfort become more intense.

 This is not a flaw in your body. It is your nervous system doing what it evolved to do, even though the context is no longer life-threatening.

Pain and Emotions Share the Same Brain Pathways

Physical pain and emotions are processed in overlapping brain networks. This means that emotions such as sadness, anger, guilt, anxiety, or pressure do not just affect how you feel mentally. They can directly amplify physical symptoms, especially when those emotions are carried over time.

When emotions are suppressed, rushed through, or never given space, the nervous system remains activated. In a sensitized system, that activation can show up as pain or digestive symptoms.

Why the Holidays Are a Perfect Storm for Symptoms

Although holidays are meant to be joyful, they often come with a unique combination of stressors, including:

• Social obligations and expectations
• Financial pressure
• End-of-year work deadlines
• Crowded schedules and long to-do lists
• Family dynamics that reactivate old emotional patterns

 On top of this, there is often an unspoken pressure to enjoy everything.

When your real, lived experience does not match the picture-perfect version promoted in media and culture, that contrast alone can create emotional strain. The nervous system reads this mismatch as stress, even if you tell yourself that you should be grateful or happy.

The holiday season can be especially hard on people with perfectionistic - and people- pleasing tendencies. If you tend to put others first, keep the peace, or aim to make everything perfect, the holidays can quietly exhaust your nervous system.

People-pleasing and perfectionism often involve ignoring internal signals in order to meet external expectations. Over time, this trains the nervous system to stay in a heightened state of alertness.

Symptoms often flare not because you are doing something wrong, but because your system is doing too much for too long.

A Different Approach This Holiday Season

Instead of pushing through and hoping symptoms settle on their own, consider a different approach: Make space for yourself. Say no when it protects your health. Say yes to what actually nourishes you. Let go of the idea of a perfect holiday.

Your well-being matters more than traditions, expectations, or appearances. Giving yourself permission to slow down, set boundaries, and honor your nervous system may be the most important gift you give yourself this year.

Holiday symptom flares are not a personal failure. They are often a signal that your nervous system is overwhelmed and asking for safety, rest, and regulation. Understanding this connection is not about blaming stress or emotions. It is about recognizing where real leverage for healing exists.

Want to Understand What’s Driving Your Symptoms?

If your pain or IBS symptoms tend to flare during stressful periods like the holidays, it may be a sign of a sensitized nervous system rather than ongoing tissue damage.

 To help you explore this, you can take our free neuroplastic pain assessment here: Neuroplastic pain assessment 

The assessment is designed to help you understand whether your symptoms may be driven by learned brain and nervous system patterns, and whether approaches focused on regulation and retraining may be appropriate for you.

Understanding the mechanism behind your symptoms is often the first step toward lasting change.