For many people, the mention of taxes or personal finances is enough to trigger a tight chest, racing thoughts or the urge to put everything off until “later.” When deadlines loom or numbers don’t add up, anxiety can take over – making it even harder to take action. The good news is that stress around filing your taxes is both common and manageable.
We asked Steve Fisher, LPC, director of clinical services at WellPower, for some tips about how to manage the stress and anxiety millions of people experience each year during tax season. We’ll get to those, but first let’s quickly review some logistical tips (and just a note that WellPower does not provide tax advice, so please speak to a tax professional for financial guidance):
Get organized
Gathering all of your tax-related documents and putting them in one designated place can immediately make the process feel more manageable. Research highlighted by Psychology Today shows a connection between disorganization and increased stress, anxiety and depression. When papers are scattered across drawers, inboxes and apps, it’s no wonder our brains feel overwhelmed. Creating order, even in a small way, restores a sense of control and clarity. And this doesn’t have to be done all at once – try identifying a folder or a box you’ll put your documents in, and then adding one or two documents at a time over the course of a week.
Set up a clear checklist
Breaking a large task, like filing your taxes, into smaller, bite-sized steps can make the process feel far less intimidating. Focus on one simple action at a time – rather than the entire to-do list. This helps reduce overwhelm and builds confidence as you go. Research from Harvard Business School shows that small wins create positive momentum, boosting motivation and making it easier to keep moving forward. Those small wins add up and can transform taxes from a source of dread into a series of manageable actions.
Get in touch with a tax professional
Working with a tax professional can ease financial anxiety by taking the guesswork out of filing and helping you feel confident that everything is done correctly. They can clarify which documents you need, identify potential deductions or credits and answer questions that might otherwise keep you stuck. Check out these resources that connect eligible taxpayers with trusted assistance – so you don’t have to navigate tax season alone.
Handling Stress during Tax Season
Now that you’re all organized, let’s talk about how to handle that tax stress and anxiety. Here are four things Fisher recommends considering:
- Continue to take care of yourself. Keep an eye on the parts of your life that affect your well-being: sleep, hydration, good nutrition, exercise, healthy relationships, spiritual practices can all have outsized impacts on our mood, energy and sense of motivation.
For a more concrete action, Fisher recommends doing something kind for someone else. “We can get so focused on ourselves that stress and low motivation become a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Fisher explained. “Doing something for someone else allows us to get outside of ourselves. And, an act of kindness is the most predictable way to see a brief increase in well-being.” For a bigger boost, try volunteering with a community group, helping a neighbor carry in groceries, holding the door for the person behind you. “Small things can help you see beyond a difficult situation,” said Fisher.
- Act opposite. “One of the most tried and true techniques we do with people in therapy is what we call ‘opposite action,’” Fisher said. Think about someone who is experiencing anxiety – they likely want to avoid situations that cause them to feel anxious, and this avoidance actually reinforces the anxiety. Instead, Fisher explained, “we encourage people to gently approach the situation that’s making them feel a certain way – to ‘act opposite’ to the feeling by taking small steps directly into it.”
For example, instead of someone staying in bed with the covers over their head when they’re anxious about going to work, we would help them work towards getting up, taking a shower, eating breakfast and finding the car keys – all small actions that act opposite to what the person’s anxiety would have them do otherwise.
In the case of taxes, this might look like some of the organizational tips above: making a folder to keep documents, finding a few documents a day and putting them in the folder, starting a list of charitable donations you’ve made in the past year, deciding whether you want to file yourself or with the help of a tax professional.
- Audit your thought records. At WellPower, we use evidence-based practices to help people build a sense of agency and well-being. One of these practices is called cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which involves thinking about our thinking. What does this mean?
Fisher explains: “We know that thoughts precede emotions. If my thought is really negative and hopeless – if a situation happens and I interpret it as a defeat – my emotion is going to correlate with that.” A “thought record” is one of the CBT tools we commonly use in therapy to help examine the interpretation of an event and assess whether the interpretation actually matches reality. “You examine the thought and test the evidence to see if it’s actually accurate,” said Fisher.
Is it really true that you’ll never get your taxes done, or that your situation is so complex it’s impossible to untangle, or that you’ll do something wrong and get audited by the IRS? By checking your interpretation of the situation, you might find that much of your anxiety was coming from your interpretation rather than from the actual situation. This, in turn, can help with solving it – as Fisher explained, “I can see there are some reasonable solutions to this problem. And then I’m not as anxious and depressed, and instead able to approach the situation adaptively and not get stuck.”
- Give counseling a try. “Many people decide that seeing a counselor or therapist is a very valuable part of their approach to managing stress and anxiety,” Fisher said. When the “do-it-yourself” tips don’t quite get us to where we want to be in terms of managing negative emotions – and especially when our emotional experience interferes with our daily lives – talking to a professional can be both important and effective.
WellPower is the largest community mental health center in Colorado, known locally and nationally for innovative, supportive care. And we’re here for you, both during tax season and beyond. For information about the wide range of services we offer the community, from therapy and counseling to medication management and peer support, call us at (303) 504-7900 or request a phone call by filling out a quick form.
And don’t forget: the 988 Colorado Mental Health Lifeline is available for free, immediate, human support 24/7. If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health, emotional or substance use concern, call or text 988 or live chat at 988Colorado.com.
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