Find a Psychologist to Navigate Loneliness This Holiday Season

Loneliness is a complex yet universal feeling. People are susceptible to feeling lonely when they are either by themselves or in company, missing a particular connection or missing healthy social connectedness, digitally connected or a luddite, physically distanced from family or emotionally detached from family. Loneliness is also a feeling people experience either all the time or particularly during the holiday season.

A multitude of reasons exist for why people feel lonely and empty. Are you aware of your triggers and reasons? This article gives you an overview of how loneliness can impact your life, how to potentially cope, and when you need to find a psychologist.

Impacts of loneliness

Loneliness is psychologically regarded as a “social cancer”, linked to adverse physical health difficulties, for example cardiovascular activation and higher mortality and morbidity risk. In addition, loneliness negatively impacts brain processes and increases the severity of some mental health symptoms.

Here are a few tips on how you can address your loneliness and improve your quality of life:

1. Rethink your expectations 

During the holiday season, people often feel societal pressure to enjoy celebrations amongst large groups of people. Further, social media showcases how friends and acquaintances are cherishing a picture-perfect holiday. However, this expectation is not realistic to some, and usually not conducive to certain lifestyles.

If you can relate to the above, and you are unable to rethink and manage your expectations, you can consider using some skills from Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT).

2. Get comfortable in your own company

Take this holiday season as an opportunity to learn how to enjoy your solitude. Explore different activities that bring you joy and develop a self-care routine. The best part of this is there is no right or wrong way of practising self-care, and this could look different for everyone. 

Start with exploring your feelings and understanding why you are feeling a certain way and what you can do to take care of yourself. If you want to talk things through, you can also speak to someone or reach out for some professional support. 

3. Explore hobbies you enjoy

Research shows that adding leisure hobbies to your daily schedule supports prolonged and positive mental health. Take some time to find a hobby that you find meaningful. This way, you will not only be indulging in an activity that brings you joy but also adding value to your life. Gradually, you could consider social hobbies to meet people who share the same interests as you, which is a great way to start building social relationships.

4. Develop connections

From an evolutionary perspective, humans are social creatures and have a more fulfilling life when they have healthy emotional and physical relationships as feelings of belonging can alleviate loneliness. However, remember to focus on quality over quantity: People often feel lonely owing to a lack of quality relationships and connections, either with other people, objects or fictional characters.

If these are all tried and tested and you’re still burdened by loneliness, you may want to consider  finding a psychologist to better understand the  factors contributing to your loneliness.

Why you need to find a psychologist 

If you feel lonely amidst friends and family or are unable to alleviate your loneliness even though you are trying your best, research suggests that an effective approach would be to work on  your thinking patterns or relationship patterns. All relationships need work.

While we can work on relationships with others, it’s also crucial that we work on relationships with ourselves and our emotions. It is important to understand and be aware of our difficult emotions such as a deep sense of loneliness, and be ready to explore and accept them, in order for things to change. Sometimes this process is difficult without professional help, as the process might bring up other challenging emotions, or other factors that might need untangling. 

When you are ready,  contact us to chat about your needs, and we will help you find a psychologist who is trained to provide you with person-centred support and evidence-based therapies.