Holiday Loneliness: Missing Pieces of Our Hearts

The holidays fill many people with joy. However, many people also experience great sadness during the holidays. Many of us experience depression from missing departed loved ones. When we are dealing with holiday loneliness, sometimes it feels like we will never be happy again.

Loved Ones That Are Gone

The loss of a loved one is devastating. It could be a spouse, a parent or grandparent, a child, an aunt or uncle, a niece or a nephew, or a brother or sister, or even a close friend. One of the hardest times to go through after the loss of a loved one is the holidays.

Holidays are the times that we share with the people we love the most. We all have so many memories of the good times spent with our loved ones during the holidays. Some of the hardest times after they are gone are the times that brought us so much joy when they were with us. Without those loved ones, holidays constantly remind us of the hole left in our hearts. We feel the emptiness caused by their absence. The times that were once our most joyous often become our most depressing as we deal with grieving the loss all over again. The grief of trying to just survive these times without them can overwhelm us.

Dealing With the Grief

Holidays are often a grim reminder of not just our departed loved ones, but our own mortality. Those special occasions in our lives are now the events that cause us to grief the ones that we’ve lost, sometimes even more than when they first passed on. How do we deal with the grief that the holidays can bring when faced with getting through them without the loved ones that are no longer with us?

Many people never get over the loss of a loved one, especially someone very close. We pour so much of ourselves into those relationships that these are our most devastating losses in our lives. Losing someone so close causes a big part of ourselves to die.

Even when the loss isn’t someone who is so close to us, it can still be devastating. You feel like a part of your life is empty. You feel like there is no way to ever fill that emptiness. I wish that I could honestly say that the emptiness will go away. The truth is no matter how much the wounds heal, there will always be a part of our hearts that long for those joyous times that we used to share with our loved ones.

We need to surround ourselves with the loved ones that are still with us, especially those that share in our loss. Sharing time with our friends and family, we can heal. Even though we can never replace our loved ones, we can keep their love alive by sharing their memory. By maintaining our remaining relationships, we can at least heal to the point of being able to look back fondly at our memories instead of looking at our present with sorrow, bitterness, and anger.

Teaser: Prepare for somewhat more light-hearted fare and a Christmas treat!