Do you feel lonely during winter? I know I do. I dread waking up in the cold and gloom, knowing that daylight will have come and gone in just a few hours. It’s all too easy to assume that your day will amount to nothing, because it will be over soon anyway. Sometimes I end up feeling as if I’ve internalised the weather outside – wet and miserable.
If you share these feelings, you’re not alone. Winter blues are common as winter itself; SAD (seasonal affective disorder) is now recognised as a type of depression – no less debilitating than any other type.
Russell Brand, who has suffered from anxiety and depression, argues that the most important thing to combat loneliness during this time of year is to join communities and support groups. Don’t be too picky: no matter what the group is all about, the sense of belonging is the main thing. Brand also believes that change is inevitable and we must acknowledge this by not clinging on to relationships and relying on other people staying the same. We don’t, so why should they?
Combating loneliness, says Brand, is a journey that starts from within, via self-love, meditation and thinking deeply about yourself; and it’s a journey where thinking of yourself as part of a community can help massively. I personally would suggest trying to set yourself short term goals and getting yourself into a fixed routine to give yourself a sense of purpose.
Loneliness, by the way, is not confined to having nobody around you: you can be surrounded by other people and still lonely, especially if they all seem to share the same sense of purpose and you’re the only one who isn’t in on it.
According to a survey of 55,000 people conducted by BBC Radio 4, young people aged 16 to 24 comprise the loneliest group in the UK, in spite of the fact that nearly all of them are at school, college or university. But the transition between school and university, for example, can be very lonesome – if all your school friends are suddenly scattered across the country at different universities.
Christmas may be over but that doesn’t mean we should all go back to being anti-social. Right now, in the midst of the January blues, it’s all the more important to get going by joining that community group, volunteering at a care home, or knocking on your neighbours’ door to offer them some food.
It is my personal belief that helping others gives us all a sense of completion. Maybe if you are not quite ready for all of that, join online forums like Reddit like I did. Or at least use loneliness as an opportunity to question and understand how you feel.
