Loneliness is a serious public-health problem:
Doctors and policymakers in the rich world are increasingly worried about loneliness. Campaigns to reduce it have been launched in Britain, Denmark and Australia. In Japan the government has surveyed hikikomori, or "people who shut themselves in their homes". Last year Vivek Murthy, a former surgeon-general of the United States, called loneliness an epidemic, likening its impact on health to obesity or smoking 15 cigarettes per day. In January Theresa May, the British prime minister, appointed a minister for loneliness.
That the problem exists is obvious; its nature and extent are not. Obesity can be measured on scales. But how to weigh an emotion? Researchers start by distinguishing several related conditions. Loneliness is not synonymous with social isolation (how often a person meets or speaks to friends and family) or with solitude (which implies a choice to be alone).
Instead researchers define loneliness as perceived social isolation, a feeling of not having the social contacts one would like. Of course, the objectively isolated are much more likely than the average person to feel lonely. But loneliness can also strike those with seemingly ample friends and family. Nor is loneliness always a bad thing. John Cacioppo, an American psychologist who died in March, called it a reflex honed by natural selection. Early humans would have been at a disadvantage if isolated from a group, he noted, so it makes sense for loneliness to stir a desire for company. Transient loneliness still serves that purpose today. The problem comes when it is prolonged.
[...] A study published in 2010 using this scale estimated that 35% of Americans over 45 were lonely. Of these 45% had felt this way for at least six years; a further 32% for one to five years. In 2013 Britain's Office for National Statistics (ONS), by dint of asking a simple question, classed 25% of people aged 52 or over as "sometimes lonely" with an extra 9% "often lonely".
Other evidence points to the extent of isolation. For 41% of Britons over 65, TV or a pet is their main source of company, according to Age UK, a charity. In Japan more than half a million people stay at home for at least six months at a time, making no contact with the outside world, according to a report by the government in 2016. Another government study reckons that 15% of Japanese regularly eat alone. A popular TV show is called "The Solitary Gourmet".
[...] The idea that loneliness is bad for your health is not new. One early job of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the Yukon region was to keep tabs on the well-being of gold prospectors who might go months without human contact. Evidence points to the benign power of a social life. Suicides fall during football World Cups, for example, maybe because of the transient feeling of community.
But only recently has medicine studied the links between relationships and health. In 2015 a meta-analysis led by Julianne Holt-Lunstad of Brigham Young University, in Utah, synthesised 70 papers, through which 3.4m participants were followed over an average of seven years. She found that those classed as lonely had a 26% higher risk of dying, and those living alone a 32% higher chance, after accounting for differences in age and health status.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Monday September 10 2018, @10:05PM (6 children)
There are some excellent cures for depression. Try hiking. Choose someplace known for it's population of grizzly bears. For best results, you might want to pack some raw meat into your backpack. Facing down a hungry grizzly who wants your meat will lift your spirits. Unless, of course, you end up on the menu, yourself. Either way, you won't be depressed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 10 2018, @11:11PM (5 children)
So now you lot are sinking down to the "kill yourself" level of commentary? You're getting worse runaway, did you just get a bad diagnosis of butt cancer?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday September 11 2018, @07:20AM (2 children)
You have obviously missed the point. Tell me, Grasshoppper, what is the sound of one hand clapping?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 11 2018, @07:29PM (1 child)
Your face getting slapped right before you sleep on the couch for the 1000th time.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 12 2018, @03:47AM
Pro-tip: Never let your woman pick out your couch. She's not going to be the one sleeping on it.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 11 2018, @10:15AM (1 child)
He didn't say that. Often times, Runaway comes across as an asshole, but this time he's spot on. If you feel lonely, find people to be around with. Sometimes this requires a little bit of effort. I've been struck how some people would say "I feel homesick" because they are away from home. Well, why don't find new friends? Make a new home? To that, they would think (actually act) "oh no no no, I'll just get used to being along". So you get what you get, 1st world problems where people have too much time on their hands and are unaccustomed to actually doing anything about it.
1. find friends
2. do things (hopefully with friends, but I guess bears work too as distraction)
3. see above
If you are lonely, then find someone or something (a hobby) so you don't have to be lonely. And if you look online (like dating sites) you'll quickly realize how pathetic most people are at that task. No objective thought or follow though. We end up with "lonely" because mostly type-B/C personalities don't even know they are that. So helpless they don't even realize the easy cure for their loneliness. Pathetic.
(Score: 2) by Hyper on Wednesday September 12 2018, @03:23AM
Isn't this what bars are for?