For example, chronic loneliness can drive up cortisol levels in the body. Cortisol is a hormone that your body creates when under stress. Over time, higher cortisol levels can lead to high blood pressure, excess weight gain, muscle weakness, problems concentrating, and more.
If you've experienced ongoing feelings of loneliness, it can have negative effects on your physical health. It could lead to weight gain, sleep deprivation, poor heart health, and a weakened immune system. Loneliness can also put your body under more stress than normal.
Physical signs of loneliness may include cold or flu-like symptoms that linger longer than usual, headaches, body aches, and insomnia or hypersomnia. With loneliness and isolation, attention is more inwardly focused.
The key difference between being lonely and being alone is emotional attachment. Being alone is a state of being, while loneliness is a feeling. We can be perfectly happy being by ourselves, but we can also be lonely even if we're with a group of people.
When someone feels lonely they are more likely to try to distract themselves with the other things in their lives. So if your colleague is always talking about their stamp collection, or always flying away on exotic solo city breaks rather than spending weekends at home, they might be feeling alone.
Research has linked social isolation and loneliness to higher risks for a variety of physical and mental conditions: high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, a weakened immune system, anxiety, depression, cognitive decline, Alzheimer's disease, and even death.
Neither loneliness nor chronic loneliness is a classified mental health condition, but chronic loneliness can lead to mental health problems, such as depression, or other effects, such as alcohol use disorder.
Loneliness unleashes excess stress hormones, causing an elevated heart rate, and increased blood pressure and blood sugar levels. Loneliness also reduces the number of antibodies we produce to fight infection and may make us more susceptible to cancer.
A brain imaging study showed that feeling ostracized actually activates our neural pain matrix. In fact, several studies show that ostracizing others hurts us as much as being ostracized ourselves. We can hypothesize that, similarly, loneliness is associated with the pain matrix.
Older people are especially vulnerable to loneliness and social isolation – and it can have a serious effect on health. But there are ways to overcome loneliness, even if you live alone and find it hard to get out.
If you are feeling lonely, reach out to an understanding loved one. If your feelings of loneliness don't go away or feel unbearable, or if you are feeling anxious or depressed, contact a mental health professional.
Biologists have shown that feelings of loneliness trigger the release of stress hormones that in turn are associated with higher blood pressure, decreased resistance to infection and increased risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Welcome to “traumatic aloneness”. There's feeling lonely, there's feeling alone and then there's traumatic aloneness. Nowadays we often use the word “traumatic” to tell others that something really bad or really distressing happened.
Research shows loneliness is as deadly as if you smoked 15 cigarettes per day and that people who are lonely are 50% more likely to die at a premature age.
Group interventions
Group interventions include group therapy to teach and practice social skills, communication, and emotional regulation in a group environment. Groups can provide clients with immediate feedback in a safe environment and help normalize any social anxiety that may be the root cause of loneliness.
Loneliness can lead to older people experiencing shorter periods of quality sleep, and insomnia symptoms such as finding it hard to fall asleep, or feeling tired and irritable more frequently. Sometimes loved ones who feel socially isolated will want to spend more time in bed, while not necessarily sleeping.
The Emotional Impact of Loneliness
On the emotional side the perception that social support is inadequate is associated with depression, which, if severe and untreated, is associated with increasing disability, loss of weight, disturbed sleep and thoughts of suicide or actual suicide.
Poor social skills often lead to stress and loneliness, which can negatively affect physical as well as mental health.
Living alone gives you the opportunity to explore your true self and develop a sense of being comfortable in your own skin. This might be the simple act of being comfortable in your own company. Or being able to spot what triggers negative feelings and (most importantly) what you can do to counteract them.
Research shows loneliness is associated with negative physical and mental health outcomes; for example, it is a risk factor for depression, increases pain sensitivity, and has been linked to premature death.