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The Overlooked Pandemic: 4 Reasons To Seek Counseling For Loneliness And Societal Disconnect

21 December 2020

Rebecca Pena

There's another pandemic in the world that doesn't get nearly as much attention as the fast-spreading virus, and it's called loneliness. Unfortunately, people don't often perceive loneliness as a harmful condition, nor one they can get help for. Nothing could be further from the truth on both counts, though.

1. Loneliness Is Physically Harmful

Feeling the burden of loneliness is hard on your immune system, which often leads to a slew of other symptoms, but it weighs heavy on your heart, nervous system, and nearly every other body part, too. Since a physician can't see loneliness on an X-ray or in a blood test, though, it usually goes untreated. Especially over an extended period of time, feeling alone leads to chronic health problems and pain.

2. It Takes An Emotional Toll, Too

Two of the more predominant emotional effects of loneliness are depression and anxiety, and both tend to creep up on you. Being isolated in the world can be very damaging psychologically. Before long, signs of depression, like fatigue, sleeplessness, loss of interest and appetite and constant irritability take over. All of that, in turn, can easily lead to anxiety, especially when you need to go out in the world or even just answer a knock at the door.

Oddly enough, persistent loneliness can cause you to start pushing people away, which is the last thing you need.

3. You Don't Have To Be Alone To Feel Lonely

Even if you know a lot of people in your neighborhood, have plenty of coworkers and perhaps a large family, that doesn't exclude you from being vulnerable to loneliness. By their very nature, people need other people to talk to on a personal level, to relate to, to help and be helped by; thus, if you're simply going through the motions of being social with everyone around you, there's still a good chance you'll end up feeling painfully lonely.

Social media, too, can actually increase a person's symptoms, since it's a mere substitute for actual human contact. In fact, social media may be a growing cause of feelings of loneliness and disconnect all across the world.

4. Counseling Can Help You Open Up

Some people intentionally avoid others, but there's usually a reason for that. They may have suffered some trauma or been hurt and rejected so many times they resist being around people anymore. Feeling different or living an alternative lifestyle can also form a wedge between you and the rest of the world, but with so many reasons to feel lonely or separate yourself from society, there's just no one-size-fits-all cure.

A counselor dissects the root causes of the social disruptions that create such wide distances between people, eventually coaxing them back to the warmth, safety, and gratification of personal relationships. Whatever barriers are keeping you lonely, professional counseling can break down.

Loneliness is, indeed, a potentially devastating condition too many people bear by themselves. If you're feeling the weight of any situation that makes you feel isolated and hopeless, reach out to counseling services that can heal and reconnect you.

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