Loneliness is the overwhelming sadness that comes from feeling like you have no friends, connections, or company. Loneliness tends to be a common occurrence in the life of people today. Living in a time focused on staying socially distant, it can be hard for those who crave social interaction to feel like they belong, thus this creates a strong sense of loneliness. If a person experiences the feeling of being lonely for too long, it can lead to many health problems including depression and heart disease. If we implement strategies on how to stay connected, it can help decrease the sense of perceived loneliness and lower the chances of developing more serious health issues.
Being told that loneliness is bad can only do so much so how bad is it really? Studies described by the American Heart Association pointed out that those who live a lonely life actually have a 50% increased risk at an early death and being isolated increased stroke and coronary artery disease risk by a whole 32% (American Heart Association News. 2020). All because people felt like they were not getting enough social interaction. Feeling like you are all alone can also increase the stress hormones in your body. Having those elevated levels of stress for a long period of time can also cause high blood pressure that can lead to heart problems. The simple step of just having a meaningful conversation with someone regularly can significantly lower your risk of developing more serious health problems.
Connection happens at multiple levels in your life. With yourself, the close people in your life like family and spouse, and then others that make an impact like friends and coworkers. This means you can also experience different stages of loneliness. In an issue of Perspective on Psychological Science, Stephanie Cacioppo et. al went further to describe what these levels of loneliness consisted of. They have it broken up into intimate, relational, and collective loneliness. Intimate loneliness is when the person you rely most on is not living up to expectations. Maybe you need a shoulder to cry on and they are not there for you in your time of need. This relationship can be a spouse or close family member. Relational however is loneliness within friendships. Those who you go to for social interaction outside of the home. And the last tier that Cacioppo described was collective loneliness. This includes members of teams or clubs that you are involved with. The three levels of loneliness laid out in this article show the degree at which you can be affected by loneliness can differ from what level it comes from, with intimate being the most vulnerable. (Cacioppo et. al., 2015). We can use this idea to see what exact tools are needed to help bring connection.
So, knowing the different types of loneliness and the risk factors that come along with them. What can someone do to help with being lonely? First, we can choose what level of relationship we want to strengthen and develop a plan from there. For example, if you were not getting enough interaction between you and your spouse, an intervention could be implemented targeting ways to connect with your partner. An article from News in Health explained just this. Physical contact like a hug or kiss from your significant other can release hormones like oxytocin, serotonin, and dopamine. These hormones can make you feel happy and closer to your partner. The article also mentioned that happily married couples that had frequent interaction had better heart health than those who were more isolated (Do Social Ties Affect Our Health?, 2017). Prescribing more date nights turns out, is good for your health! This can also be applied at community level interaction in the sense that if you are around genuine people, stress levels and blood pressure will decrease. Knowing what loneliness is and the risks, how to identify it, and how to use connection strategies to cope with loneliness, you are on the path to lower blood pressure, a healthier heart, and ultimately a healthier you.
References
American Heart Association News. (2020, July 8). Why stay in touch while keeping distant? It's only human. Retrieved September 07, 2020, from https://www.heart.org/en/news/2020/07/08/why-stay-in-touch-while-keeping-distant-its-only-human
Cacioppo, S., Grippo, A. J., London, S., Goossens, L., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2015). Loneliness. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(2), 238-249. doi:10.1177/1745691615570616
Do Social Ties Affect Our Health? (2017, September 08). Retrieved September 07, 2020, from https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2017/02/do-social-ties-affect-our-health