How Does Loneliness Affect Your Health?

We've been hearing a lot about loneliness lately. Next to stress, anxiety and depression, loneliness lurks just behind, triggering all sorts of thoughts and emotions.

It's there in our solitude as we continue to physically distance ourselves from most social interactions as the pandemic drags on indefinitely. It's there as we scroll through the endless social media parodies of other people's lives. It's there in the extended family group texts even as everyone checks in on each other, laughing over shared memes and unverified information that's been shared many, many times.

So, what exactly is loneliness?

Loneliness is typically associated with a lack of social interaction or an absence of people surrounding you. But this wouldn’t be entirely true as it’s also possible to feel lonely while surrounded by friends and other people.

Everyone experiences loneliness in different ways, making it difficult to pin loneliness with a single definition. One way to define it is by how dissatisfied one is by the level of intimacy they have with their connections. Loneliness can also be defined as a state of mind with overwhelming feelings of emptiness, rejection, or being misunderstood. People who are lonely crave human connection but find it difficult to form these connections with others.

Loneliness and social behaviour

The thing about loneliness is, it can often become a vicious cycle. When someone is lonely and acknowledges the feelings of loneliness that they are experiencing, you’d think that their next step would be to take action to feel less lonely, right?

It’s a lot easier said than done. When a person is lonely, they end up feeling vulnerable, which can lead to them exhibiting behaviours that promote hypervigilance to guard against potential threats. As much as they wish to reconnect with people and reach out, there is an innate fear of negative evaluation that causes their self-preservation instincts to kick in. They also had increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system, the part of the nervous system responsible to the fight-or-flight response to stress or threats.

A study provides evidence that lonely people are able to differentiate social threat images from non-social threat stimuli more quickly in comparison to people who are not lonely.

 The effects of loneliness on health

In a study that gathered data across 308,849 individuals, followed for an average of 7.5 years, indicate that the influence of social relationships on the risk of death are comparable with well-established risk factors for mortality such as smoking and alcohol consumption and exceed the influence of other risk factors such as physical inactivity and obesity. The magnitude of this effect is comparable with quitting smoking and it exceeds many well-known risk factors for mortality (e.g. obesity, physical inactivity). To put it into further perspective, the health risks of loneliness are equivalent to the effects of smoking as much as 15 cigarettes a day.

Loneliness has also been linked to an increased risk of chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease and stroke. 

A separate study reported that people who are lonelier had higher biomarkers of inflammation, increased activity of inflammatory genes, and reduced activity of anti-viral genes. This indicates immune functioning, cardiovascular functioning, and cognitive decline are associated with the quantity and quality of social relationships.

Various studies have also been conducted to observe the effect loneliness has on mental health. It has been linked to depression, anxiety, Alzheimer’s, and increased suicidal behaviour.

Does a lack of physical connection actually make us lonelier?

As much as loneliness hurts us, social connection can protect our health and mental health in many ways. A Harvard study following people for some 80 years, found that people with stronger social connections were the healthiest and happiest.

But even “weak” social interactions, like those with classmates or casual acquaintances, predicted happiness, which suggests that we might not need to have only “deep” interactions to reap the psychological benefits of social connection. Just casual conversations with neighbors or colleagues on a daily basis might do something similar.

Connection provides psychological comfort and increases resilience to stress and trauma. Relationships can create context for finding purpose and meaning.

Look for opportunities to meet people and cultivate new friendships and social interactions. This can be through community service, club activities, or classes, avenues that can occur online and in-person as people adapt to the current situation.

Just because you are alone, it doesn’t mean you have to feel lonely

There are no two ways about it; the only way to cure loneliness is to look at the root cause of it. Does your loneliness stem from a lack of social connections? Or is it due to a lack of intimacy in your existing relationships?

Reaching out and forming connections can be daunting to most, and for good reason. But when you do not know how to address your feelings of loneliness, it is best if you consult a health professional before those feelings can take a serious toll on your health. There now exists counselling and therapy services to tackle loneliness and help people to gain the confidence they need to break out of their bubble, as well as hotlines for when things get particularly tough.

Digital therapeutic services also give people the option to contact a trusted counsellor or psychologist to discuss any problems or feelings that they may be experiencing, with the added convenience of being able to reach out 24/7.  

Schedule a private and confidential remote therapy session with a licensed clinical psychologist here. For immediate help, please reach out to our 24-hr Careline:

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