If your holidays feel far from perfect. Sometimes. Holidays always depress me.

You're not alone.

Is there one question when all your family gets together that you hate getting asked during the holidays? I hate getting asked, how is school going? Or like, what's my job? What am I doing? Are you gonna have a third kid?

They ask about work. They ask about relationships. They ask about children. They ask about owning property.

There's a ton of pressure that's put on these gatherings.

Jeff Gunther is a licensed professional counselor and one of Gen Z's trusted sources.

For mental health and mindfulness tips.

With almost 3 million followers on his.

TikTok, how do you deal with differing opinions at the holiday dinner table?

I want you to ask yourself what battles you want to partake in, he says.

Setting boundaries early is key.

Before you visit your family, you're going to say, hey, these are the topics that I can't wait to talk about, and here's some other topics that are totally off limits for me.

All of these situations and more contributing.

To the mental health and stress of.

Americans around the holidays, with 25% of adults worrying about spending time with family.

And 26% concerned about political conversations over the holidays, according to the American Psychiatric Association.

You're not going to change someone's mind overnight or over a dinner party.

Author and licensed psychologist Emily Bashaw says there are some strategies that can help you navigate chaotic family conversations.

There are three different types of ideologies. There's the extremists tribalist, and there's the person with agency. With the extremists, you're really not going to be able to talk them out of their beliefs because it's so ingrained. People who are tribalists may move towards extremism if they tend to see people as part of an outgroup. Conversations with people who practice self agency and really are empowered to have difficult conversations with people, this is going to be the best group. This is going to be the group that we strive to belong to.

And Dr. Bashaw says the concept of pre forgiveness can help protect your peace.

This practicing of, you know, I'm not perfect, and I'm also allowing other people to not be perfect too, that they can also have their flaws. I'm just not going to take it personally.

Do your very best to have a good attitude. It's okay if you center your needs, your emotional needs, and find people that are in your family that you feel safe and connected to and spend the most time with them, even if they are a dog.

Maya Eagle, NBC News.

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