@raging vortex - I'm so sorry you are struggling with loneliness. There's a phenomenon called FOMO ("fear of missing out"), which is what increases both anxiety and depression among social media when you are surrounded by hearing positive things that you aren't included in. There are recent studies about that. I knew a grad student whose research was about that very thing, in addition to other traumas and eating disorders among college students and maybe teen foster children. I've lost touch with her, but I learned a little bit about her research and how the very things you mention can increase depression for some people.

Before social media, we weren't constantly flooded with selfies and cheery people; we could retreat home or choose what to hear on the radio or television. We could still call crisis lines, and we could attend in-person support groups. There seemed to be more of them back in the day. The advent of the World Wide Web brought on an entirely different lifestyle, as did this pandemic. More and more people are online now, which makes it even more challenging for us who are perpetually lonely.

I once had a horrible T who told me that at least I had my alters. We may have one another, but we're all lonely. We want to know people in life, in addition to just us. And maybe we are here because of all the CEN (childhood emotional neglect) we experienced overall, where we had to learn to care for ourselves and to deal with loneliness. Even movies like Cast Away reveal how another "person" is there (in that movie's case, it was "Wilson," the ball) to keep us company when we are utterly alone for hours on end. But that movie was about an adult. As children, we perhaps dissociated into different parts because of our loneliness, in addition to our traumas. We were rejected, abandoned, hurt, neglected, abused. This might be a lot to take in, so hopefully we aren't triggering you. But we wanted to share this with you to validate your feelings and pain.

We hope we can all find way to spend some time online here for Christmas. We know it is painful. We don't have to do Christmas things if it is too painful. I posted in the Games section a thread from Z-A on Backwards Christmas stuff with an anti-hero kind of theme (like you present naughty and nice together). It's a way of venting but having fun while "un-celebrating" the holidays, LOL. It's kind of sappy, but the idea just popped in our head.

We like to hear your thoughts on stuff. It helps us cope sometimes because then we know we aren't the only ones struggling like that, too.