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Sunday, August 30, 2020

Loneliness: The Other Epidemic (Mental Health)

You're busy: You work from home, you exercise, you manage your household chores and you now meet friends over video calls. Life seems all sorted, you seem to have learned the "newnormal" well, but is it so?


More and more people are experiencing the dark looming shadow of loneliness.


People who are lonely are up to 32% more likely to die early than their more connected peers, research shows.


Do you know loneliness ranks high up there with dangerous health outcomes of smoking, obesity, and physical inactivity in terms of its long-term effects on your health?


Under normal circumstances, loneliness would be something we have some degree of control over, but the COVID-19 pandemic is making us feel as if we have little control over our lives and our feelings of isolation.


Previous research into this area has shown that strong social ties may protect people from emotional distress, cognitive decline, and physical disability, while loneliness and social isolation can cause harm to physical and psychological wellbeing. Both loneliness and social isolation have been strongly associated with poorer quality of life and other measures of well-being.


In a survey of 20,000 Americans, nearly half reported always or sometimes feeling lonely or left out. Young adults ages 18 to 22 are the loneliest generation of all, the survey found. It could be as simple as having people around who encourage you to make healthy choices, such as keeping doctor's appointments, eating right, and taking medications. Or, chronic loneliness could be a recipe for chronic stress, which in turn wreaks havoc on your health.


The late Dr. John Cacioppo, a psychology professor at the University of Chicago, studied the effects of loneliness for two decades before his passing in 2018. He equated loneliness with a type of hunger, noting that establishing social connections is essential for human survival. He also believed that chronic loneliness can increase the incidence of early death.


Seek out if you are lonely.
Try to reduce someone's loneliness.


Stats: 43% of seniors feel lonely on a regular basis. There is a 45% increased risk of mortality in seniors who report feeling lonely. Loneliness is more dangerous than obesity and as damaging to health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.


This post is a part of Blogchatter #CauseAChatter Campaign.

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COMPANIONS CALLED BOOKS

To Kill a Mockingbird
The Catcher in the Rye
Animal Farm
The Alchemist
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Romeo and Juliet
Frankenstein
The Odyssey
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Count of Monte Cristo
Eat, Pray, Love
Lolita
The Da Vinci Code
The Kite Runner
The Silence of the Lambs
The Diary of a Young Girl
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Notebook
Gone With the Wind
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The Human Bean Cafe, Ontario

The Human Bean Cafe, Ontario
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