It’s meant to be the most wonderful time of the year yet it’s no secret that, for a lot of us, the festive period can bring up all all kinds of mixed emotions.
We may find ourselves lonely or overly-nostalgic, suddenly missing people we didn’t expect to.
And according to one expert, this is all because of the pressure that we – and society – place on ourselves to have the perfect, love-and-laughter-filled Christmas.
Dr Erin Hope Thompson, clinical psychologist and director of The Loss Foundation, told The Huffington Post: ‘The media craze around Christmas focuses on it being a time of year for family, and a happy time.
‘With both of those assumptions comes pressure – the pressure to spend time with people you might not ordinarily want to at other times of year, and the pressure to feel happy and enjoy it.
‘There is very little in the Christmas media craze that reflects on what it’s like to spend Christmas time alone, or missing someone or something, or wishing you were elsewhere.’
Social media can make things worse too, as we’re bombarded by snaps of people’s cosy family get togethers or fun nights out.
All of which can lead us to compare our own lives and find them lacking, even if we’re feeling generally ok the rest of the year.
So if you’ve found yourself feeling a little blue this festive season, take a moment to remember the images you’re being bombarded with aren’t an accurate representation of what’s really going on with most people, and that it’s normal to feel down when this kind of pressure heaps up.
