We all feel lonely from time to time. Feelings of loneliness are personal, so everyone's experience of loneliness will be different. One common description of loneliness is the feeling we get when our need for rewarding social contact and relationships is not met. But loneliness is not always the same as being alone.
Young people feel loneliness the most
The BBC Loneliness Experiment surveyed 55,000 people and showed that 16–24-year-olds feel loneliness the most.
In turn, male participants reported more frequent loneliness than female participants across all levels of individualism, with this gender effect being somewhat stronger for participants living in more individualistic nations (βcollectivist = −0.07; βmiddle = −0.09; βindividualistic = −0.10, all ps < 0.001).
One in four Australian adults feel lonely, and the impacts can be dire. Loneliness increases our risks of depression, diabetes, dementia, self-harm and suicide.
Michael Collins, known as the “loneliest man in history” for being the often-forgotten astronaut who stayed aboard Apollo 11 and orbited the moon alone while his teammates took man's first steps on the moon, died Wednesday at age 90, his family said.
Seventy-three percent of Gen Z report feeling alone either sometimes or always—the highest level of any generation. The mental health challenges experienced by Gen Z are like nothing any other generation has faced.
Some of the most common causes of loneliness include: Social Anxiety, Isolation, Difficulty with Assertiveness, and Poor Self-awareness. Common types or forms of loneliness include: Lack of Physical Connection, Lack of Common Interests, Lack of Shared Values, Lack of Emotional Intimacy, and Lack of Self-Intimacy.
What causes loneliness? There is not one single cause of loneliness. Loneliness can often be a result of life changes or circumstances that include living alone, changing your living arrangements, having financial problems, or death of a loved one.
Alfred Weston, who remained in the Apollo 15 command module, has been dubbed the most isolated human ever.
As humans, we are engineered for many challenges. One of the challenges that we are not well equipped for, however, is loneliness. The Covid-19 period of on and off lockdowns, restrictions, and social isolation have made it abundantly clear that we are not meant to be alone.
Loneliness, on the other hand, stems from the perceived difference between the social lives we actually have and the kind of social life we often feel we should have. More often than not, we feel especially lonely when we compared our current lives against some ideal that we've set for ourselves.
It's characterized by constant and unrelenting feelings of being alone, separated or divided from others, and an inability to connect on a deeper level. It can also be accompanied by deeply rooted feelings of self-doubt, low self-esteem, or social anxiety.
The reason you have no friends may be because you are shy, uncomfortable interacting with others, or simply don't go places that would lead to meeting new people. You don't have friends may have a lot to do with your mindset.
79% of adults aged 18 to 24 report feeling lonely compared to 41% of seniors aged 66 and older. This is consistent with earlier research.
Causes of loneliness include life changes that lead to social isolation, like moving to a new place, grieving a death, or the end of a relationship. In some cases, loneliness is linked with mental health conditions like depression.
Another major factor in why younger people are more lonely is that they're more likely to have recently moved. While technology makes it easier to stay connected, we still tend to have a proximity bias when it comes to making friends. As social creatures, we like to gather face-to-face and have impromptu hangouts.
As a complex trait, loneliness is likely to be influenced by the interplay of numerous genetic and environmental factors. Studies in behavioral genetics indicate that loneliness has a sizable degree of heritability.
Students from these 10 countries scored the lowest on social connection: Lithuania, Ecuador, Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, Japan, Norway, Russia, Slovenia, and Hungary. The UCLA Loneliness Scale was used to assess people's subjective feelings of loneliness and social isolation.
The oldest old and young adults were the loneliest
As one would expect, the oldest old (defined as being over 80) were the loneliest. However, coming in second place were young adults around the age of 30. There was also another spike in loneliness around age 60.
Other recent studies have connected loneliness and social isolation with a range of health problems, including heart attacks, strokes, drug abuse, alcoholism, anxiety and depression.
Loneliness causes people to feel empty, alone, and unwanted. People who are lonely often crave human contact, but their state of mind makes it more difficult to form connections with other people. Loneliness, according to many experts, is not necessarily about being alone.
For instance, loneliness is correlated with social anxiety, social inhibition (shyness), sadness, hostility, distrust, and low self-esteem, characteristics that hamper one's ability to interact in skillful and rewarding ways.
Rushing around all day every day to get through your to-do list is one of the signs of lonely people. Filling your day with activities that prevent you from connecting with others is a way lonely people fill the void they feel inside.