Why loneliness is bad for your health

treefrog , 2 months ago

As a person with trauma, who has had trauma all his life, I find social interactions draining and stressful. I have trouble developing trust, which makes it difficult to bond with others. And which makes me more lonely in a crowded room than I feel right now sharing my thoughts with you all on the internet.

I guess I’m curious how this study would fair if it was done on self-described introverts. I value my friends, but maintaining those relationships is a burden rather than a joy for me.

xkforce , 2 months ago

I thought I was an introvert then I realized that “traumatized extrovert” isnt the same thing

frauddogg , 2 months ago

Well, when the social that encircles me stops being collaborators in genocide and settler-colonialism, then I’ll start socializing again; and if it never happens, then when I die, I’ll praise the divinities I worship that my time in the evil empire is finally over.

Blackout , 2 months ago

The one nice thing about working in an office is making friends with coworkers and getting insights on their friend group. You could move somewhere new and the job is a good place to start with it. Now people work from home so that avenue is closed.

The next easiest way is thru your children. They make friends and you naturally become closer to their parents. Unless they are low-functioning autistic and can't make friends. All the parents in that class are exhausted from constant care of their child and your kid has 0 interest in hanging with theirs anyways.

Suddenly you are 40. All your friends from your 20s & 30s have scattered to the winds. You yourself have moved to MCOL state just to stop your rent from taking everything and the only ones looking to make friends are younger and have no interest in older people. You tried everything, going to events alone, joining clubs alone, inviting the people in your boxing class to concerts. Offering to pay for everything. But the constant failure just introverts you further. You stop trying and your hobbies are your friends now. Unfortunately not everything can be like the movies. Sometimes you just lose.

Hold on to your friends tightly everybody.

kirbowo808 , 2 months ago

Yeah no shit

ffsoda , 2 months ago

I enjoy being alone. I don’t feel loneliness the same way most people do, so I’m assuming I’d avoid the negative health effects? Hopefully anyway.

bionicjoey , 2 months ago

As long as you do something for exercise and mental stimulation. The study seems to be considering those the real benefits.

hackerwacker , 2 months ago

Or people who are sick are less likely to socialize, which is a much less exciting finding.

hydroptic , 2 months ago

Yeah, I dropped out of social life because of health issues preventing me from socializing.

Well, either that or loneliness causes tumors.

Strider , 2 months ago

Thank you for this. It’s so easy to get the blame shifted to oneself.

ryannathans , 2 months ago

Great way to dismiss the research

hydroptic , 2 months ago

Gods forbid we try to look at other viewpoints. NO CRITICAL THOUGHT ALLOWED, CHEERING ONLY

mranachi , 2 months ago

Or this field research is going beyond correlation… "Over the past few years, scientists have begun to reveal the neural mechanisms that cause the human body to unravel when social needs go unmet. "

hackerwacker , 2 months ago

It does not and they have not.

But the way in which these factors interact with one another makes it difficult to disentangle the effects of loneliness from the causes, cautions cognitive neuroscientist Livia Tomova at Cardiff University, UK. Do people’s brains start functioning differently when they become lonely, or do some people have differences in their brains that make them prone to loneliness? “We don’t really know which one is true,” she says.