Loneliness: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment
No one wants to be lonely. It sounds like you plugged it out of a song lyric, but it is accurate and the universal truth.
People describe chronic loneliness as a term that people experience over some time. While being lonely and chronically lonely is not an illness, it will still affect the person’s mental and general health.
Loneliness also describes moody feelings when you cannot meet your social needs. It is relatively normal to spend more time alone most of the time, and being alone all the time might help you relax and recover. People also have different requirements for being alone most of the time, so you might have to be alone for long periods.
However, being alone and lonely isn’t the same. While you might be enjoying some alone time, you probably don’t feel isolated by your friends and don’t crave contact with other people. Isolation and loneliness are usually going in hand in hand, and they might also affect emotional health and well-being.
Read on to learn more about chronic illness, how to recognize it, different complications, and other potential methods to strengthen your social connections.
Why Do People Feel Lovely?
Loneliness can happen for a few reasons. You might feel lonely if:
- Switch jobs or go to a new school.
- Start working from home.
- Move to an entirely new city.
- End a loving relationship.
- Live alone for the very first time.
When you adjust to different circumstances, you might start to feel less lonely, but there are times when they might persist. It is not easy to open up to another person and talk about the feeling of being lonely, and if you cannot reach out to others, you might feel even lonelier.
If you have a lot of meaningless connections, you might also start to feel lonely even when you have a lot of friends.
You might also have casual friends and want to fill up your time with social activities, but you still don’t feel close to anyone. Spending a lot of time with other couples and married friends might make you feel lonelier if you are single and wish you were with someone.
Living with mental or physical health issues might increase the risk of feeling lonely. Health concerns can also cause the person to self-isolate, as people can’t explain how they think. However, a lack of social connection might make things even worse.
Loneliness is not classified as a chronic illness and is also not classified as a mental health issue. However, experts state that there are ways loneliness can affect someone’s mental and physical health.
If you feel lonely and go through the symptoms that people state as loneliness, you might want to talk to a mental health expert for help.
A therapist might also give you help to uncover any mental health problems that occur. Although there is no diagnosis for loneliness, getting help will help you get the support you need.
Experts state that isolation and loneliness affect health, so seek help while you still can!