Unhappy Christmas

BBC NEWS: "I'm a risk to myself at Christmas"

This article addresses the thing I hate most about Christmas – the fact that the whole country goes into shutdown mode, with no public transport and virtually nothing open. This is all very well for people who have family to spend time with them, but for people who don't, or are estranged from them, or would rather be somewhere else, or for that matter want to spend the day with their family but don't have cars, it's not much good – but it is the mentally-ill who are among the worst affected:

For a three-week period over Christmas and the New Year, John needs to be sedated to minimise the risk to himself.
"I am a suicide risk at other times, but at Christmas the risk is greater and as it approaches I can feel my anxiety levels starting to rise, which increases the risk to my personal safety.
"Christmas causes major distress for many people like myself.
"Not only is most of the country engaged in jollity and festive cheer, but the country also seems to go into total shut-down mode.
"Services and drop-in centres close, friends and people around you tend to go incommunicado and spend time with family, and the psychiatric wards take on a very different feel, as doctors and nurses try to send all those who can go home home, making them even more difficult places to be.
"The worst times that I have had in hospital have been those in and around Christmas and the New Year because there is virtually no-one there."