One of the great evils of the 21st century is the feeling of loneliness a problem that affects many more people than we think.
We would be surprised to discover the number of individuals who, despite being surrounded by people, constantly experience this sensation. We are going to discover why this very frequent phenomenon occurs and what its psychological repercussions are.
As human beings we are gregarious beings. This means that we have a tendency to live in community, close to our peers but this is not only reduced to physical closeness, which is also important, but we need to interact regularly with other people if we do not want to experience the feeling of loneliness.
Therefore, the feeling of loneliness would be an individual’s perception of lacking adequate or quality interpersonal relationships, which makes them feel isolated from the world and not having vital needs covered for their complete development as a human being, which generates sensations. unpleasant on a psychological level, and may also be accompanied by physical discomfort.
We may think that today, thanks to new technologies, it is very easy to relate to other people, and it is partly true. The point is that on many occasions the interpersonal relationships that are generated are not of quality being too superficial and therefore failing to satisfy the person’s socialization needs.
This is aggravated by the general lack of time that many individuals suffer from, working long hours and returning home late and tired, which leaves them without energy and without time to enjoy a moment of interaction with their family or friends. , increasingly increasing the feeling of loneliness.
The conclusion is that this feeling occurs when we do not have enough quality social relationships, but it is important to take into account the individual differences of each one, since Some people will need a large number of interactions while others will be “satisfied” with just a few
Characteristics
When we talk about the feeling of loneliness we can talk about various symptoms or characteristics that are always accompanied by it. They would be the following.
A person who is experiencing the feeling of loneliness The first thing you will notice is that you feel isolated from the world, from all the people around you (even when she is not physically alone, as we have already seen).
Dejection
Likewise, the experience you are feeling will make you plunge into a spiral of sadness, and you may experience depressive symptoms if the situation lasts too long.
Exhaustion
Another characteristic that identifies the feeling of loneliness is feeling an absolute lack of energy (also linked to the symptoms of depression), which It can also influence the person’s performance and performance both in their job and in their daily tasks, making them inefficient
Concern
Obviously all this is going to generate concern in the individual, experiencing a feeling of not being satisfied with the stimuli you receive and needing a change in such important aspects of their life as relationships with their peers.
How to stop feeling alone
We already know the main factors that accompany the feeling of loneliness. The main problem is that these characteristics act as a vicious circle, so that the more exhausted, dejected, isolated and restless a person feels, the There are fewer chances that you will decide to make decisions that will lead you to lower the levels of all those sensations
It is, therefore, essential to cut this loop and begin to carry out behaviors, no matter how small, that stimulate the individual’s interpersonal activity, whether it is a small telephone conversation with a friend or family member, a visit, a leisure plan, etc All these social activities generate well-being, releasing a series of neurotransmitters in our brain that little by little will mitigate anxiety and make us feel better.
A very common practice that many people decide to carry out to leave behind the feeling of loneliness is start a new free time activity, of a social nature that is, it allows you to meet new people, with the advantage of beginning these interactions knowing that at least you have one link in common, the hobby for which you have met.
In addition, these groups offer another positive factor, and that is that they often start a dynamic of sharing a while after class, talking and even going to a nearby place to continue talking while enjoying a drink, situations that little by little allow you to go knowing our neighbor in depth and can lead to forging a lasting friendship beyond the hobby through which they met
In short, the key would be to act, to take a proactive attitude, to have an activity that little by little changes the dynamics of the few interpersonal relationships that are being had. Obviously this is often not easy, since it requires the will to change but also the possibilities for it, and without support people in the close circle it will be more difficult to achieve the objective.
But we have already anticipated that not all people have the same predisposition to experience the feeling of loneliness, and there are many variables, both personal and environmental, that modulate the probability of its appearance but also the resources available to alleviate it, and a One of the most important is the stage of life in which the subject is. Let’s now focus on the most relevant in this matter: old age
The feeling of loneliness in the elderly
It is evident that not all people have the same possibilities to leave the circle we were talking about, whether due to a lack of resources, a lack of a social circle to rely on and of course there is the issue of age. And it is that It is in old age when more people experience the feeling of loneliness, due to the progressive isolation that many elderly people suffer whether due to the death of their life partners, their friends, lack of family visits, life in residences, etc.
Within the elderly, in addition, it is women who are most affected by the feeling of loneliness, mainly due to their greater life expectancy, which makes them more likely to outlive their partners, ending their final years alone, with the consequences that this entails.
The age factor can be aggravated if the person suffers from any physical ailment that prevents their mobility, facilitating their isolation at home and therefore complicating social contact. Likewise, it may be the case, increasingly frequent, of ending their days in a senior center if the person is dependent and his or her family cannot take care of them in their own homes, a very common situation nowadays.
As a final note regarding the question of age, an unexpected fact: after old age, the stage of life in which the feeling of loneliness is highest is adolescence, as it is a time of great changes to all levels and sometimes it is not easy to achieve a balance between the interpersonal relationships that we would like to have and those that we actually have.
Avoid loneliness in others
At this point one may think that the feeling of loneliness is not something that is affecting us personally, since it is possible that at specific moments we feel alone, but it is not the general trend, since we have a series of reasonably satisfactory interactions with others.
The point is that we may not have stopped to think that Maybe some people around us are suffering from this evil in silence without anyone collaborating to remedy it And, we have already seen how difficult it is to get out of the spiral of isolation in which people trapped in a feeling of loneliness fall.
Therefore, it would be very positive if we all did the mental exercise of thinking about which people, perhaps elderly relatives (sometimes not as old as we may think), or old friends whom we have not heard from for a long time, may be experiencing an unpleasant feeling of loneliness.
If we identify someone who fits this pattern, It would be great if we called them and proposed to have a coffee or take a walk together In reality, the activity is the least important thing, since the important thing is to share a pleasant moment in company and give back what they lost one day without knowing very well why: contact with another human being.
