How do you combat loneliness?: Although being alone can be pleasurable and desirable, loneliness is not chosen, and people experiencing loneliness often feel sad and empty and crave social interaction. Feeling lonely is different from isolation, but the two can feed into each other, with isolation leading to loneliness, which contributes to conditions like social anxiety and depression, making you more likely to self-isolate.
Loneliness is more likely to affect younger people (teenagers), older people and people in minority groups, and isolation is more likely to affect men than women. Feeling lonely can mean different things to different people, depending on that person’s situation and individual needs, but it is generally considered to be a negative or undesirable state.
For some people, the feeling of being lonely is just a transient state that, given time, will pass eventually. But for many individuals, loneliness and isolation can both contribute to and be exacerbated by physical and emotional problems such as panic attacks, anxiety and depression. However, you do not need to be suffering from mental health issues to benefit from talking to someone about how to deal with loneliness.
