From the files of "Shit we already knew....": Real loneliness can do serious damage

[Blue_Tires]

'Tis the season to be lonely. Half a million pensioners will spend Christmas Day alone, while nearly three in five people over 55 will be wishing they could see more of their family. This isn't just a seasonal or British phenomenon. At any given time, around one in five Americans – 60 million people – feel so isolated that it makes them seriously unhappy.

That last statistic comes from a new book called Loneliness, co-written by John Cacioppo, a neuroscientist. He says social pain is akin to physical pain. That occasional pang of isolation – the odd Saturday night when none of your friends are around – is no more than a prompt to socialise, in the same way that burning skin is a spur to get your hand away from that frying pan. It's regular, chronic loneliness that does the serious damage: increased stress levels, higher blood pressure, disrupted sleep – all the way to accelerated dementia. Many pensioners who complain about not seeing enough of their loved ones might end up in this category.

Loneliness is contagious, even between people who don't have direct contact with each other. A study of nearly 5,000 Massachusetts residents conducted over 10 years found that a friend of a lonely person was 52% more likely to develop feelings of social rejection – and one of their friends had 25% more chance of feeling lonely in turn. Even a friend of a friend of a friend was at greater risk of loneliness.

This is a social disease that threatens to turn into an epidemic. And it has spread not geographically but economically. In the new boomtowns of China, community-oriented societies are beginning to be swept by serious loneliness. The Chinese are getting richer, but they also feel more alone.

What can be done? Cacioppo wants to encourage neighbours to come into contact with each other, by making cities more walkable. And for the seriously lonely, he has one overriding piece of advice: help others through charity work, or cook for acquaintances. "When you're lonely you feel you could just eat other people," he says. "But the trick is to feed them."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/dec/15/brain-food-loneliness

[ixion]

1. Kurt Vonnegut often wrote about loneliness

He felt that it was one of society's greatest ills, and proposed different solutions over the course of his novels.

As one who spends the vast majority of my time alone, I would be all for a little less loneliness. The caveat, though, is that our society actually discourages close contact, a trend that has increased over the years.

[Blue_Tires]

3. very true

and I have known loneliness and social isolation as bad, if not worse than the story describes...to make it worse, for years I used to justify deluding myself by thinking i didn't need human interaction to find contentment in life, and it has cost me dearly in personal development...only now at the age of 33 am I starting to turn it around...

[Lilith Velkor]

2. Loneliness is contagious, so the lonely must be shunned

That's really gonna help the lonely who join volunteer organizations. :eyes:

[winyanstaz]

4. To have friends..one must make an effort to be friendly.

The more you help others the happier you will be.
For one thing...you will make new friends.
For another..you will be too busy to sit on the pity pot.
Even the housebound can help...phone calls are wonderful to receive. Form a community Care Line.