How has this self-isolation been affecting you?

Are you alone or are you lonely?

The more I listen to the experiences of others, the more I get the sense that we are facing a quiet epidemic of loneliness, and this was happening before this COVID-19 pandemic surfaced. It has been shown in the following situations;

• It is in the young people who get addicted to video games or social media.
• It is found in the 30-year-old man who feels alone, because every one of his friends is now married, except him.
• It is in spouses who stop communicating because of the isolation they feel from one another.
• It is in the men who has never have bonded with others over more than sports.
• It is in the woman who can’t relate to other women, because she thinks she is not up to their standards.
• It is in those struggling with disabilities who feel all alone.
• It is in our homes, and workplaces.

It is my understanding that being lonely describes a feeling of sadness coming from isolation. It is also my understanding that being alone describes a person who is separate from others. However, there is a huge difference between being lonely and being alone. Many people who are alone do lead happy lives.

In preparing this blog I decided to do some research, that I’d like to share with you. Did you know that;

• According to a 2018 national survey by Cigna, loneliness levels have reached an all-time high, with nearly half of 20,000 U.S. adults reporting they sometimes or always feel alone.
• With the same survey, it stated that 40% of the survey participants also reported they sometimes or always feel that their relationships are not meaningful and that they feel isolated.
• In a 2015 study, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, PhD, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University, found that a lack of social connection heightens health risks as much as smoking 15 cigarettes a day or having alcohol use disorder. She’s also found that loneliness and social isolation are twice as harmful to physical and mental health as obesity.
• In a 2019 Emarketer survey it found that 90.4% of Millennial’s (those born 1981 – 1996) are using social media on a daily basis.
• In several recent studies, teenage and young adult users who spend the most time on Instagram, Facebook and other platforms were shown to have a substantially (from 13 to 66 percent) higher rate of reported depression than those who spent the least amount of time.

Due to all of this I wonder who are the loneliest. I come from this from a personal level, that being a person who has always enjoyed visiting with people that were older than me. I’ve found that many elderly people have developed habits that help them be comfortable with themselves being alone. They find ways to keep busy mentally. To reap the rewards of isolation, an elderly person who feels lonely seeks out activities that cause them joy, such as:

• writing letters
• reading
• painting
• assembling jig-saw puzzles
• limits news media exposure
• sewing
• taking a correspondence course, or
• do things that take the focus off yourself.

While these may not be your favorites, what is something that you enjoyed when you were younger? Is there something in your past that you have not done in a while, that you could bring into this present time?

To conclude, I have a question for you; What can you do that will make this self-isolation more enjoyable for you both now and into the future?