It's Best to Encourage Dialogue, not Debate.

• Position: FAMILY GATHERINGS

What is it about the holidays that makes people anxious? "Around the holidays, there are so many sources that bring people to feeling stressed or anxious. For some, the social aspect activates all their anxieties about failure, hobnobbing, and giving speeches. Certainly, the 'performance' aspect of the holidays can make people anxious and on edge," says Jason Moser, professor of psychology and director of the Clinical Psychophysiology Lab at Michigan State University, East Lansing.

"A big part of the experience of stress and anxiety feels like a pile--just getting bigger and bigger... or, the proverbial pot or bucket overflowing. So, if you add stress about COVID to the stress about the holidays, you are just making that pile bigger, that pot fuller.

"People are asking, "Where and how will I do the holidays? What sort of safety precautions will need to be taken? If we do it outside, how will that work? Can I invite older relatives? What other precautions do I need to take for them?'

"It's all these thoughts, building, swimming, filling you up that will surely make existing stress of the holidays harder and harder."

Then again, if people used to get stressed about being around family, will quarantine be a sense of relief--or unleash all new stressors? "People will...