If you always wait until the last minute to buy gifts before the holidays, your procrastination might actually be a common form of anxiety in disguise.
“Holidays are inherently stressful, even if you love the holidays. We wait until the last minute because it’s natural to want to avoid stress,” said Shannon Garcia, a psychotherapist at States of Wellness Counseling based in Illinois and Wisconsin. “That’s your brain attempting to be helpful. Procrastination gets labeled as laziness. It’s not laziness, it’s avoidance. And avoidance is anxiety.”
That’s why this kind of anxiety often shows up as being constantly distracted from your main task. You might sweep your room before you finish your crochet blanket gift, for example. “You can occupy yourself with other unimportant tasks to avoid the one that needs to get done,” said Anita Chlipala, a Chicago-based marriage and family therapist.
Garcia said people who experience gift-giving anxiety often feel guilty, irritable and indecisive about their behavior. “You’ll think you’re just ‘bad’ at the holidays when in reality, it’s anxiety,” she explained.
As the gifting deadline approaches, you may also notice tightness in your chest, restlessness, fatigue or even trouble sleeping, Garcia added.
