[Feature] The many faces of loneliness

Originally published: December 1, 2025

Sometimes, the feeling comes to him as frustration, like the problems in his life are piling up. Other times, it feels like anxiety or dread. Like all he wants is to stay in bed.

Mondays are when 73-year-old Michael Holtom feels it the most. These aren’t the regular Monday blues – the dread that many of us get at the end of the weekend, at the idea of diving back into a regular schedule.

Instead, it’s the opposite. It’s the nothingness he feels. Waking up and staring at the ceiling as he faces down another day, another week, hours and hours ahead with nobody but himself. Wondering, what am I going to do today? and coming up blank.

“I can’t,” he’ll think to himself in these moments. “I just can’t seem to put it together.”

It’s taken decades for Mr. Holtom to be able to identify the feeling. It’s loneliness.

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