Loneliness and health

 By Gary Davis

Anyone who has experienced loneliness knows how painful is the gap between what we wish for in our social connections and what we actually have:

“Socially isolated individuals tend to feel lonely, but loneliness is not synonymous with being socially isolated. Loneliness is more accurately defined as the distressing feeling that accompanies discrepancies between one’s desired and actual social relationships.” (Hawkley, L. C., Thisted, R. A., Masi, C. M., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2010). Loneliness predicts increased blood pressure: 5-year cross-lagged analyses in middle-aged and older adults. Psychology and aging, 25(1), 13

Loneliness can have significant negative impacts on health, including:

• Depressive symptoms
• Impaired sleep and daytime dysfunction
• Impaired mental health and cognition
• Stress on the:
  • cardiovascular system
  • immune system
  • reproductive system, and
  • central nervous system
• Vascular resistance, leading to prolonged increases in blood pressure affecting organs throughout the body

Severe loneliness, especially in older age, can lead to nursing home admission & death.

Loneliness is a strong suspect in not only being associated with these very negative health outcomes, but actually a significant factor in causing them. 

In short, loneliness is not good for your health. 

We can begin to overcome loneliness by increasing our positive social connections: learning to make new friends and learning how to talk to strangers.