The core of loneliness: lack of pleasurable engagement--more so than painful disconnection--predicts social impairment, depression onset, and recovery from depressive disorders among adolescents. J Pers Assess. 2002 Dec;79(3):472-91.
The root of loneliness isn't the absence of other people but an inner absence—you don't have a centered awareness of your true self. Your true self is your spirit, which is infinite and eternal. Its qualities include love, compassion, equanimity, joy, creativity, intuition, pure potentiality and bliss.
Eight Primary Emotions
Sadness: grief, sorrow, gloom, melancholy, despair, loneliness, and depression. Fear: anxiety, apprehension, nervousness, dread, fright, and panic.
Loneliness in its essential meaning is also related to context and connection. Involuntary loneliness involves a lack of context. To be left alone, without others and their fellowship, means a reduced feeling of context and connection.
Older adults are at increased risk for loneliness and social isolation because they are more likely to face factors such as living alone, the loss of family or friends, chronic illness, and hearing loss. Loneliness is the feeling of being alone, regardless of the amount of social contact.
Lonely individuals tend to have a pessimistic general outlook: they are more negative than are individuals who are not lonely about the people, events, and circumstances in their lives, and they tend to blame themselves for not being able to achieve satisfactory social relationships.
Solitude improves psychological well-being.
But solitary skills could be help you become mentally stronger. Studies have found people who set aside time to be alone tend to be happier. They report better life satisfaction and lower levels of stress. They're also less likely to have depression.
Loneliness affects people in different ways, and for this reason there are four distinct types of loneliness identified by psychologists: emotional, social, situational and chronic.
When you feel lonely, you get more defensive. You focus more on self-preservation even though this is not done intentionally. Completely unbeknownst to you, your brain is focusing more on self-preservation than the preservation of those around you. This, in turn, can make you less pleasant to be around.
Anger, Fear, Sadness, Disgust & Enjoyment
Understanding our emotions is an important part of good mental health. Below is a diagrammatic representation of the five basic emotions, which contains different words to describe the varying intensity of feelings in these five domains.
Loneliness has a social dimension (i.e., a lack of social integration) and an emotional dimension (i.e., a lack of intimate relationships). New research shows social loneliness and emotional loneliness have shared and unique risk factors.
As such, Jack et al. (2014) proposed that we humans have four basic emotions: fear, anger, joy, and sad.
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.
Loneliness was associated with posttraumatic stress symptoms at both time points. Social loneliness was longitudinally associated with posttraumatic stress symptoms. Emotional loneliness was longitudinally associated with posttraumatic stress symptoms. This relationship may be bidirectional.
Chronic loneliness occurs when feelings of loneliness and uncomfortable social isolation go on for a long period of time. 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.
Loneliness is toxic
Loneliness has clear consequences for mental health, aggravating anxiety, depression, and stress-related symptoms. Additionally, it sabotages our physical health. According to two leading researchers, loneliness triggers an inflammatory response and threatens our immune system.
"Loneliness can change the neurochemistry of the brain, turning off the dopamine neurons, which trigger the reward response, and causing some degeneration in the brain when the reward response is not activated," says Katherine Peters, MD, PhD, FAAN, associate professor of neurology and neurosurgery at Duke University.
Being alone can help you build mental strength.
But, solitude may be just as important. Studies show the ability to tolerate alone time has been linked to increased happiness, better life satisfaction, and improved stress management. People who enjoy alone time experience less depression.
People need at least a little human contact in order to thrive, and true isolation can take a toll on your overall well-being. If you're not totally isolated, though, and your lack of friends doesn't trouble you, it can be perfectly fine to be satisfied with your own company.
Most notably, researchers found that loneliness rates peak among people in their 20s, and reach their lowest point among those in their 60s. Many people also experience a spike in lonely feelings around their mid-40s.
Alfred Weston, who remained in the Apollo 15 command module, has been dubbed the most isolated human ever.