How loneliness can become a chronic disease

We all feel lonely sometimes. If our friends don’t have time for us on the weekends, we transfer to a new school or if we sit alone in our breaks. But this problem has become really serious for us in the past century.

60% of the people in Great Britain stated, they feel lonely really often. In the USA, it’s almost 50 %, and in Germany, it’s half of the whole population. This is especially true for young people from 16-25.

Even though we live in a globalized world, where we can connect in endless ways online, loneliness is a pandemic.

Being alone and feeling lonely are different. We can be very happy with being alone and enjoying our own company, but when we don’t have as much contact or intimacy as we would like, we feel lonely. You can be with a lot of people and still feel lonely, if you don’t feel understood or as though you belong, for example. And this feeling of loneliness has consequences on human health.

Chronic loneliness is even worse than obesity.

One study found that chronic loneliness is as bad as smoking 10 cigarettes per day. Our immune system doesn’t work properly. Our skin ages faster, and cancers can develop faster with it.

Chronic loneliness is even worse than obesity. And the worst thing about it is, that if we have this chronic loneliness, we won’t come out of it easily.

It’s just like any other chronic disease.

What can you do against it?

Don’t push against loneliness. First, accept it. It’s totally normal to feel lonely sometimes.

Accept offers from friends to hang out. Try to think about the conversations that you had with friends.

Try even having more physical contact with people. Not just a hand shake. Try to have a hug. Don’t be shy to ask people for a hug - your body will spread happiness hormones like serotonin or oxytocin. You will feel refreshed and good.

If you feel like you’re alone and don’t see a way out, you can also reach out to crisis hotlines to get support. The app “KrisenKompass” and TelefonSeelsorge hotline is there for you: 0800.1110111.