Loneliness

Loneliness can be a result of genetic inheritance,[1] cultural factors, a lack of meaningful relationships,[2] a significant loss, an excessive reliance on passive technologies (notably the Internet in the 21st century),[3] or a self-perpetuating mindset.

Professors including Michele A. Carter and Ben Lazare Mijuskovic have written books and essays tracking the existential perspective and the many writers who have talked about it throughout history.

[20] In New Zealand, the fourteen surveyed groups with the highest prevalence of loneliness most/all of the time in descending order are: disabled people, recent migrants, low income households, unemployed, single parents, rural (rest of South Island), seniors aged 75+, not in the labour force, youth aged 15–24, no qualifications, not housing owner-occupier, not in a family nucleus, Māori, and low personal income.

[60][20][63][56] While cross-cultural comparisons are difficult to interpret with high confidence, the 2020 analyses based on the BBC dataset found the more individualist countries like the UK tended to have higher levels of loneliness.

However, previous empirical work had often found that people living in more collectivist cultures tended to report greater loneliness, possibly due to less freedom to choose the sort of relationships that suit them best.

A 2010 systematic review and meta analyses had stated that the "modern way of life in industrialized countries" is greatly reducing the quality of social relationships, partly due to people no longer living in close proximity with their extended families.

While enhanced vigilance may have been evolutionary adaptive for individuals who went long periods without others watching their backs, it can lead to excessive cynicism and suspicion of other people, which in turn can be detrimental to interpersonal relationships.

[86] Associational studies on loneliness and the immune system have found mixed results, with lower natural killer (NK) cell activity or dampened antibody response to viruses such Epstein Barr, herpes, and influenza, but either slower or no change to the progression of AIDS.

[87][88] And based on the large UK Biobank cohort, a study found that individuals who reported feeling lonely had a higher risk of developing Parkinson's disease.

[10][11] Émile Durkheim has described loneliness, specifically the inability or unwillingness to live for others, i.e. for friendships or altruistic ideas, as the main reason for what he called egoistic suicide.

Two longitudinal studies with different populations demonstrated that loneliness was a risk factor for the development of the pain, depression, and fatigue symptom cluster over time.

[100] The psychiatrist George Vaillant and the director of longitudinal Study of Adult Development at Harvard University Robert J. Waldinger found that those who were happiest and healthier reported strong interpersonal relationships.

The Samaritans, a nonprofit charity in England, who work with people going through crisis says there is a definite correlation between feelings of loneliness and suicide for juveniles and those in their young adult years.

[104] College students, lonely, away from home, living in new unfamiliar surroundings, away from friends feel isolated and without proper coping skills will turn to suicide as a way to fix the pain of loneliness.

They may stop eating, alter the doses of medications, or choose not to treat an illness as a way to help expedite death so they don't have to deal with feeling lonely.

In addition to increasing support for populist policies, Hertz argues that a society with high levels of loneliness risks eroding its ability to have effective mutually beneficial politics.

And also as some of the ways individuals alleviate loneliness, such as technological or transactional substitutes for human companionship, can reduce peoples political and social skills, such as their ability to compromise and to see other points of view.

Studies investigating the relationship between loneliness and voter orientation directly found that lonely individuals tend to abstain from elections rather than support populist parties.

A 2006 study conducted by the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago found loneliness can add thirty points to a blood pressure reading for adults over the age of fifty.

Cacioppo states that loneliness impairs cognition and willpower, alters DNA transcription in immune cells, and leads over time to high blood pressure.

For some commentators, such as professor Ben Lazare Mijuskovic, ever since the dawn of civilization, it has been the single strongest motivator for human activity after essential physical needs are satisfied.

Some commentators including professor Rubin Gotesky have argued the sense of aloneness was rarely felt until older communal ways of living began to be disrupted by the Enlightenment.

There isn't always sufficient funds to pay for therapy, leading to the rise of "social prescription", where Doctors can refer patients to NGO and Community led solutions such as group activities.

[117][2][118][119][32] As of 2024[update], formal social prescribing programmes have been launched in 17 different countries around the world, with improved evidence for its effectiveness when the prescriptions are carefully targeted, such as helping the lonely person get closer to nature, or participate in group activities they enjoy.

For example, housing associations that aim to ensure multi generational living, with social interaction between younger and older people encouraged, in some cases even contractually required.

Projects range from befriending schemes that facilitate just two people meeting up, to large group activities, which will often have other objectives in addition to loneliness relief: as having fun, improving physical health with exercise, or participating in conservation efforts.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention there are a number of other health benefits associated with pet ownership, including lowered blood pressure and decreased levels of cholesterol and triglycerides.

Such companions can be conventionally virtual (having existence only when their application is switched on), can have an independent digital life (their program may run all the time in the cloud, allowing them to interact with the user across different platforms like Instagram & Twitter in similar ways to how a real human friend might behave), or can have a physical presence like a Pepper robot.

Murthy argues that regular people have a vital role to play as individuals in reducing loneliness for themselves and others, in part by greater emphases on kindness and on nurturing relationships with others.

[141][20][7][83] Concern among the general public over loneliness increased in the decades since "Eleanor Rigby"'s release; by 2018 government-backed anti-loneliness campaigns had been launched in countries including the UK, Denmark and Australia.