- Home
- Find a Therapist
- Topics
- Tests
- Magazine
- Psych Basics
- Blogs
- Diagnosis Dictionary
One of the reasons that this is the year's peak season for anxiety and depression is that we are expected to spend much of this season -- this day, especially -- with others. This simple fact, this folkway, this presumption, leads to torment: albeit for opposite reasons in different kinds of minds. Some of us prefer solitude, or near-solitude, given a choice. For we loners, extended stretches of time spent in the company of others, especially with numerous others, feels like donating blood. It's that painful and that draining. Alone we feel most natural, most serene, most ourselves. Yet this is a crowded and intensely sociable world in which a loner is still pretty much considered a freak, still pitied or feared as a wallflower, serial killer or misanthrope. At holidays perhaps more than at any other time, what thrills some fills others with anguish. Yes, some of us are alone (or nearly alone) today by choice. Others are not at all alone but wish they were. Yet others are alone, all alone, all day, and wish with all their hearts that they were not. Read More
Well said. Thank you for
Well said. Thank you for perfectly describing my loner mentality.
Low level moodiness
You are describing what is most likely, at the very least, melancholia. I have this as well,it is considered a distant cousin to Depression. Murderers are depressives who have become psychotic. Read the great Peter D. Kramer concerning the subject of depression. Sincerely,David
Similar To Bella DePaulo
Anneli,
You might want to check out a fellow blogger's postings. Dr. Bella DePaulo hosts a "Living Singles" post at:
http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/living-single
She discusses how singles are discriminated against in both perception and public policy but still live happy lives - despite their (allegedly) lowly, empty, lonely lives. She calls such discrimination "singlism."
I forwarded your post on "Alone For The Holidays" to her as I felt many of the points you make are similar to hers.
Thank you,
D.C.
That was a lovely article,
That was a lovely article, thank you. For the lonely or those with the spirit to reach out and expand their extended family circle, it's possible to create an extended family of friends, if you can find people whose intention is to do the same. Try creating extended families.
Post new comment