How to Take Care of Your Mental Health When You're Missing Everything *Normal* This Holiday Season

So, the holidays are completely unrecognizable thanks to the pandemic, and you miss your fam. Here are expert-approved tips for how to cope. [ view in browser.     add cosmopolitan@email.cosmopolitan.com to your address book ]             FOLLOW US       How to Take Care of Your Mental Health When You're Missing Everything *Normal* This Holiday Season   The holiday season can be stressful at literally the best of times. And this year, several months into the coronavirus pandemic, is one hundred percent not the best of times. Thanksgiving was really rough for lots of us, and now we all have to navigate figuring out how to spend winter holidays away from family, loved ones, and longstanding traditions. It's a huge, huge bummer. But that, coupled with the fact that we're still in a pandemic where your mental health may have already been declining (52 percent of millennial women who suffer from the mental health condition say it's gotten worse due to COVID-19, per a recent Cosmo poll), may make this time extra painful. "The holidays will look different this year—I'm already grieving," says Lea Lester, LPC, a therapist in Dallas, Texas. "But I think it's necessary to grieve. It's always important to feel and process all of our emotions." There's light at the end of the tunnel now that two separate COVID-19 vaccines have been approved for emergency use in the US. Front line healthcare workers and high-risk folks will be first in line to get protected, which means life won't be going back to normal for the rest of us just yet. Ahead, hear from experts about how to protect your mental health while living through a global pandemic (yep, still) during the holiday season and into 2021. READ ON       Hello, Your Last Weekly Horoscope of 2020 Is Here   New year, new you? Read On         Just 11 Superfoods Everyone's Going to Be Obsessed With in 2021   Gimme all the kombucha. Read On         Gigi Hadid Shares Photo of Zayn Malik Cuddling With Their Baby Girl   I CAN'T HANDLE THE CUTENESS. Read On         Candace Cameron Bure Denies Participating in Brother Kirk Cameron's Christmas Caroling Protest   The public is outraged after Kirk disregarded COVID-19 guidelines. Read On         BRB, Stepping Up My Influencer Game With These 21 Clothing Brands That Are All Over TikTok   Hoping my 10 followers will think I'm cool. Read On       cosmopolitan.com ©2020 Hearst Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Email Privacy, 300 W 57th St., Fl. 19 (sta 1-1), New York, NY 10019   Unsubscribe     Privacy Notice