The epidemic of loneliness
In this evolving covid world, we are more lonely and detached than ever. Three years into managing the virus; we have seriously damaged the culture and community for many all over the world and turning to cold technology to fill the void. I note that we may be losing many of our friends and family we no longer connect with. It has politically affected our choices, how we treat each other, loss of connection in work and encouraged us to mistrusts those institutions that help shape our communities. Without connection and trust of others, there is fewer good people become those folks we need; making a more lonely and less emotionally connected human communities we actually need to find the best solutions.
I write this thinking of Jaime and the others like him. I wonder if he had been more connected on a personal level in his community would he have lived better or longer. I think he might have. In continuation of this thought, there are many other points of loneliness we see acted out in daily life and national news. No matter what, we all need to do better to be better and more connected.
https://www.publichealth.columbia.ed...ent-loneliness
Loneliness, the subjective feeling of inadequate meaningful connection to others, is prevalent throughout the U.S. In 2019, pre-COVID, 61 percent of Americans over the age of 18 years were lonely, a dramatic increase since the 1970s when rates were as low as 11 percent. While most loneliness research focuses on older adults, loneliness is not restricted to one stage of life. In comparison to the roughly 50 percent of adults over the age of 80 years who experience loneliness, the proportion of adolescents and young adults who experience loneliness reaches 71 percent. Contributing factors to the epidemic of loneliness may include changes in family structure and location, longer lives with high rates of loss of significant others in old age, a built environment fostering independence and isolation, weakening of local institutions that strengthened social capital, and the ways the Internet is used by young adults.
While feeling lonely at times is a normal and perhaps necessary part of being human, chronic loneliness adversely affects health and wellbeing. Research on the effects of loneliness at the cellular level indicates that chronic loneliness elicits an immune response that promotes inflammation, and chronic inflammation can facilitate the onset of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s disease, and frailty. There is also evidence that chronic loneliness leads to adverse mental health outcomes, such as increased rates of anxiety and depression. More broadly, loneliness appears to be a driver of “deaths of despair”—deaths due to alcohol, drugs, and suicide.
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Originally Posted by James McMullen
