Science Says, You Shouldn’t Go It Alone
Death and taxes — they’re inevitable, as the saying goes. Now add loneliness to the list, if Dickenson’s poetry has taught me anything.
Like the first two, loneliness is a serious menace, as much of a risk to public health as obesity. Everyone feels lonely at multiple times in his or her life, and this is normal. But recently, scientists and researchers have been focusing on chronic loneliness, where a person’s prolonged isolation from others, or, as the Washington Post calls it, “the distress people feel when reality fails to meet their ideal of social relationships,” becomes a health risk.
Scientists from the University of Chicago and the University of California, Davis, have found that loneliness can force the brain to enter “fight-or-flight” mode, triggering an increase of the stress hormone cortisol in the brain. Social neuroscientist John Cacioppo, a co-author of the study, told Everyday Health that the level of cortisol might spike in the morning as one wakes to the thought of another day alone. Besides being just an overall sucky feeling to have, experiencing this higher amount of cortisol levels (i.e. being stressed) can put you at risk of a range of health problems, from heart disease, digestive problems, and weight gain.
Beyond this cortisol trigger, prolonged loneliness may have an actual effect on your genes, particularly those in charge of helping your body fight infection and inflammation. And, as the New York Times points out, your blood pressure may increase due to higher vascular resistance.
Many scientists have called for loneliness to be treated as much of a risk to public health as, say, obesity or depression, although public response has been slow to respond.
Articles on the subject have pointed to the United Kingdom as a pioneer in combating loneliness, with a variety of public interest groups campaigning for more research and outreach to lonely people — especially the older population. One such resource is The Silver Line, a telephone hotline reported on by the Times that provides older people with a basic channel for human communication.
While there doesn’t seem to be such a resource in place in Denver, that doesn’t mean the problem isn’t there. If you’re feeling lonely, consider joining a social group, taking some classes, and nurturing the social network you already have with phone calls and meet ups. Therapy is always an option, and can help you deal with the anxiety and self-doubt that may be holding you back to begin with.
