While many people look forward to the holiday months, the most wonderful time of the year does not come without its fair share of stressful situations.

From family to finances, this season can trigger anxiousness for some people, and exacerbate existing mental health issues. And with the ongoing pandemic, there is no doubt that the holidays will look different as more people choose to socially isolate, or only celebrate festivities with people in their household.

So exactly what mental health roadblocks can we expect to occur this year? And how can we cope? Experts have a lot of concerns and advice.

The Mental Health Effects You Might Experience Because Of The Holidays This Year

Before getting into what might happen, lets do a little myth-busting. Despite the pervasive idea that suicide is more prevalent during wintry months, suicide actually decreases during the holiday season, said Taryn Hiatt, the Utah and Nevada area director for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention .

There is definitely cause for concern and distress, Hiatt told HuffPost. However, when you see suicide peak historically, its been in the spring.

That said, Hiatt noted the suicide prevention community is preparing for any kind of spike this year due to the pandemic and is largely focusing on putting support in place for front-line health care workers.

While suicide rates may decrease during the holidays, a large amount of the general population will deal with increased feelings of stress , anxiousness or the holiday blues. Additionally, a 2014 survey from the National Alliance on Mental Illness found that 24% of people with a mental illness reported their conditions worsened a lot from Thanksgiving to New Years Day. Another 40% of survey participants with mental illness reported that the holidays made their conditions somewhat worse.

Holidays are usually a hard time for some people, and part of that is the expectations and advertisement of these idyllic happy families. [This year] you have a higher amount of anxiety, depression, trauma, and substance use thats happening even before the holidays begin, Ken Duckworth, chief medical officer at NAMI , told HuffPost.

In fact, a recent study conducted by researchers from the Boston University School of Public Health revealed that the percentage of adults in the United States experiencing depression symptoms has increased nearly threefold since the beginning of the pandemic. Further, alarming new research has suggested that 1 in 5 people infected with COVID-19 is likely to receive a mental health diagnosis within three months of contracting the virus.

As Debra Kissen, CEO for Light on Anxiety and member of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America , explained, the stressors that usually affect a persons mental health, such as traveling, may not be as applicable during the 2020 holiday season which can come as a relief.

However, this also means that new stressors may pose risks to ones well-being. Duckworth said that people tend to become more anxious with unknowns, because thats the bodys response to uncertainty .

Notably, a main concern experts share is that more people will be socially distancing or quarantining during this typically celebratory season, contributing to greater feelings of isolation .

A new group of people will be experiencing loneliness this year, and that really is the number one thing that I think that leads to depression, anxiety and other mental health problems around the holidays, said Paul Gionfriddo, the president and CEO of Mental Health America . On top of that, grieving is becoming a more common thing as we lose more people to COVID-19. Financial worries are more present than theyve been for the better part of a decade with more people unemployed and underemployed.

Naveen Jonathan, a clinical associate professor of marriage and family therapy at Chapman University , said another significant source of stress may still be family conflict. Rather than tension around the family dinner table, it might come down to making the difficult decision not to join family gatherings, or to work on setting boundaries with family members about not attending in-person celebrations.

What if I have different views about the pandemic, or I have different views about masking or social distancing? That could be anxiety-provoking knowing that I have this family member or these family members who may not follow social distancing in practice, or who have different views on racism, Jonathan said.

According to Hiatt, excessive drinking is another issue that experts are concerned about especially during the holiday season, particularly because studies have shown substance and alcohol use has sharply risen since the beginning of the pandemic. If someone is struggling already with depression or anxiety, thats only going to increase symptoms, she noted.