The Most Wonderful Time Of Year?
ELLE Australia|December 2018

It’s the SILLY SEASON, when parties, presents and prosecco abound. But what if you feel leftout of the festivities – or COMPLETELY ALONE?

Laura Collins
The Most Wonderful Time Of Year?

The offer from a London pub was simple: if you’re going to be alone on Christmas Day, come here. There’ll be a hot meal and your choice of festive poison waiting for you. And company. On what can be the loneliest day of the year for many, it was a lifeline – something to cling to when everyone else had, quite literally, gone home. Christmas can be the most wonderful time of the year – but not for all of us. For many, it’s a season of extreme loneliness. If your family lives far away, if you’re grieving, if you’ve just been through a break-up, if you have nobody, then all those carols about being together and the magazine spreads featuring family feasts are completely at odds with how you’ll be spending December 25.

Beyond Blue lead clinical adviser Dr Grant Blashki says Christmas can be extremely lonely and isolating. “It can stir up memories and past conflicts, place significant financial pressure on families and be a stressful period for people who have existing mental health conditions such as anxiety or depression,” he says.

We don’t often talk about loneliness because there’s nothing fun or easy or comfortable about saying, “I feel alone.” For all the gains we’ve made in discussing mental health, loneliness — ironically — has been left behind. And that’s a problem because it’s emotionally and physically debilitating. Research shows loneliness can be as harmful to our health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day and as big a mortality risk as having diabetes.

Millennials and post-millennials have been observed as the loneliest generations ever. If you’re marginalised that risk increases – for instance, in a survey conducted by the UK disability charity Scope, 85 per cent of disabled young people (those aged between 18 and 34) reported feeling lonely.

Esta historia es de la edición December 2018 de ELLE Australia.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

Esta historia es de la edición December 2018 de ELLE Australia.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

MÁS HISTORIAS DE ELLE AUSTRALIAVer todo
Books: Shelf-Care
ELLE Australia

Books: Shelf-Care

Find a little respite in this season’s most exciting new reads

time-read
5 minutos  |
June/July 2020
ELLE Australia

Men's Rites

Deciding to go through a gender transition isn’t easy for anyone. But the hardest person for journalist Daniel Mallory ortberg to convince was himself

time-read
10+ minutos  |
June/July 2020
Kick Start
ELLE Australia

Kick Start

In these uncertain times, louis vuitton’s artistic director nicolas ghesquière is looking to the past to help make sense of the future

time-read
3 minutos  |
June/July 2020
ELLE Australia

Music: Everything Is Illuminated

Phoebe Bridgers is a musician who revels in the darkness, albeit having earned her place in the spotlight

time-read
6 minutos  |
June/July 2020
SUPER NATURE ESCAPISM WILDERNESS BREATHING INFRESH AIR BATHING IN SUNSHINE
ELLE Australia

SUPER NATURE ESCAPISM WILDERNESS BREATHING INFRESH AIR BATHING IN SUNSHINE

IN THE SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY AND NEW HORIZONS, MODEL GEORGIA FOWLER HEADS FOR THE GREAT OUTDOORS

time-read
3 minutos  |
June/July 2020
ELLE Australia

THE big CLEANSE

WE’VE PURGED OUR KITCHEN CABINETS OF SUGAR AND CULLED THE CLOTHES THAT DON’T SPARK JOY, BUT WE MAY HAVE ARRIVED AT THE MOST BENEFICIAL (AND EASIEST) CLEANSE OF ALL

time-read
6 minutos  |
June/July 2020
ELLE Australia

TALKING to strangers

SINCE THE EARLY 1900S, AN AGONY AUNT HAS BEEN A WILLING EAR. BUT AT A TIME OF DMS AND ASKME-ANYTHINGS, SEEKING ADVICE FROM SOMEONE YOU DON’T KNOW HAS BECOME RISKY BUSINESS

time-read
8 minutos  |
June/July 2020
singled OUT
ELLE Australia

singled OUT

WE’VE ENTERED AN ERA OF MYRIAD RELATIONSHIP STATUSES – COUPLED, FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS, OPEN, POLYGAMOUS, THREE-DIGITALDATES-IN-BUT UNSURE-WHERE-THIS-IS-GOING. But is flying solo the last taboo?

time-read
5 minutos  |
June/July 2020
GYPSY CREEK
ELLE Australia

GYPSY CREEK

INTERIOR DESIGNER LOUELLA BOÌTELGILL TAKES US INSIDE HER QUIRKY BYRON BAY HINTERLAND CREATION, WHICH OVERFLOWS WITH A BEACHY, HAPPY VIBE

time-read
2 minutos  |
June/July 2020
DRIVE: DESIGN in motion
ELLE Australia

DRIVE: DESIGN in motion

HOW THE HOTTEST INTERIOR TRENDS COULD DEFINE WHAT YOUR NEXT CAR LOOKS LIKE

time-read
2 minutos  |
June/July 2020