Hello, Carolyn: I have two close friends getting married — I’ll be in one of the weddings. From the past few years, I have learned that I get very depressed and down on myself during wedding season. I suck at dating and have had zero luck getting return interest from anyone I’ve had feelings for, so I am perpetually single while my friends are hurtling en masse down the aisle. (Although the rush is slowing down a bit.) At one wedding, I wound up crying until I threw up in the bathroom as this loop of “I am alone, I am unlovable, other people get to fall in love but I don’t” played in my head. And that was after only one tiny glass of champagne.
I REALLY want to rally for my friends but am full of dread about what the next few months will do to me emotionally. How do I prepare? How do I care for myself before and during these weddings?
— Down