You can be totally alone without feeling a shred of loneliness and you can be absorbed by loneliness even when you are not alone. Human connection determines whether you are lonely or not, not whether you are surrounded by people. Loneliness is one of the biggest complaints of people that see therapists for any type of counseling mostly because we live in a world that closes off from intimate connection. Loneliness is more common these days than ever before because too many people have simply grown up unsure and most definitely unhappy.
Being alone can be a good thing. You can wind down, spend some time developing new ideas or thoughts, and take out a little time just for you. It’s really nice to have the time to pamper yourself and being alone doesn’t have to mean isolation. Loneliness, however, is the leading cause of suicide in the Western world and many people only realize after the intentional death just how lonely someone is.
Loneliness does not need to be a way of life. Reaching out is as simple as a phone call. If there aren’t any friends to call, there are hotlines and emergency numbers. There are websites and there are organizations that are dedicated to the mission of squashing loneliness. We need lose not one more individual to the echo of loneliness, but we need to learn to pull together and be a more loving world so that even the cold never have to feel loneliness swallow them up.
