A lonely woman during Christmas feeling the strain of loneliness.
They tell you that Christmas is not the time of loneliness and depression. All you can hear constantly from the radio and television are advertisements about joy, the family time, lots of presents and lots of great food. In conjunction with the media Christmas advertising as you walk through London to fetch your lunch, you are being bombarded again with upbeat Christmas songs. Boxes of presents are shoved in your face as soon as you enter your local supermarket store. You are being constantly prompted to buy Christmas presents. It is impossible to make your way towards the sandwich counter because what is happening outside is a mass psychosis. Everyone seems to be buying everything and anything and like never ever before. The Oxford Street is unreasonably overpopulated making it look like there are no identical shops in other parts of London or that other London areas are under a threat and therefore everyone must shopping evacuate to London W1. At the same time as the streets of Central London are overcrowding the pressure on the shoppers and passers-by is mounting. The increased demand for the Christmas preparations does not involve only the Christmas shoppers but also people who feel lonely. The lonely people have no one to buy Christmas presents for during this time of the year and they are being constantly reminded through this insensitive media advertising that we should all be happy and have family to belong to and be with during this time of the year when some of us have actually no one.
LONELY PEOPLE SHOULD BE PART OF CHRISTMAS ADVERTISING
What about people that are orphans, what about family members who were aggressively driven out of their families, what about people whose family members died, what about divorcees and single people who have no one to spend this Christmas with or ever? Does the insensitive advertising consider this? No, it does not and maybe this could be the reason why Christmas is for some like being intoxicated by alcohol for others. Whilst some alcohol consumers feel weakened under the influence of alcohol and become more impulsive and aggressive, those that are already lonely might feel further weakened by smothering and growing loneliness powered by the constant Christmas advertising charade. Would the Christmas period be more bearable and less lonely for some of us if we were more realistic and more inclusive of all members of our society and included in the Christmas advertisings slogans ‘Do not forget to invite your single friend at your Christmas dinner’ or ‘Christmas presents for your widower neighbour’, or ‘Christmas presents for your lovely friend who is spending this Christmas alone because her husband left her as she could not conceive children’ or ‘Do not forget this Christmas what is joyful time for you could mean loneliness for orphans being raped somewhere by someone, so please think of them and try to help them’.
LONELINESS IS EXTENDED TO FAMILIES
A loneliness that can lead to depression is not limited only to orphans, homeless, single, divorcees or widowed people. The loneliness also extends to people in unhappy marriages and relationships who feel unsupported, unhappy, misunderstood, betrayed, scared, cheated or not listened to. There are either many unhappy and lonely married people and families who cannot stand spending too much time with each other or people who love to do nothing else than going up and down the escalators whilst buying nothing. You should try to make a trip to Central London on the second day of Christmas holidays and you will see how many people are packed liked sardines and going up and down the escalators whilst buying nothing. Now you were given the evidence that you are not alone in feeling the burden of the Christmas loneliness and maybe if you ask your colleagues you will find that they will also not be spending Christmas with their families after all. Logically this makes sense because Christmas advertising seems to imply that everyone and all families are happy and therefore everyone should be looking forward to the Christmas holidays. This is not the case. The society comprises of good and bad people and good and bad families. This means that Christmas for some is a period when they reject to be pushed into spending the Christmas dinner in the abusive families resisting naive media and advertising that is oblivious to their suffering.
EMBRACE YOUR SOLITUDE AS OPPOSED TO ABUSE AND NEGATIVITY
In summary, I wanted to wish you a pleasant two days during this Christmas season, instead of imposing on you that you must have joyful Christmas holidays with your family. I think that as long as you can enjoy your own company, it is much better that you spend couple of days alone this Christmas rather than going with the herd and following advertising that is oblivious to your life story and that is telling you how you should behave which could result in wrong decision and you spending Christmas with abusive friend, partner or family and asphyxiating loneliness.