Loneliness is not an after effect of isolation and rejections; most of the times it takes root even before you start to think like the world doesn’t care. Being alone with your feelings is the worst because you have nowhere to run. All the things are dancing in your mind and all you can do is handle. Loneliness is like a hired assassin that stocks you, it waits and tortures you with its presence and takes away everything from you including your life.
Adults living alone are more vulnerable to have common mental disorders, including anxiety and depression — and the reason is loneliness. “In our study, the prevalence of common mental disorders (CMDs) was higher in individuals living alone than in those not living alone in all survey years. Multivariable regression analyses corroborated this findings, as there was a positive and significant association between living alone and CMDs,” said Louis Jacob, first author of the study and member of the faculty of medicine at the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France.
As per the study, Common Mental Disorders or CMDs were more common in those living alone than those not living alone:
1993: 19.9% vs. 13.6%
2000: 23.2% vs. 15.5%
2007: 24.7% vs. 15.4%
According to the study, 300 million people suffer from depression and women are more affected than men. The indications include loss of interest or pleasure, sadness, feelings of guilt and low self-worth. Tiredness, interrupted sleep or appetite and poor concentration, physical issues that are lasting or recurrent and impairment of social activeness in school, at work and their day-to-day lives are the common things experienced by patients. Extreme depression may also result in death by suicide.
Manic depression disorder is known to affect 60 million people worldwide. People who have this condition have contrastingly separated periods of normal mood and are more irritable, over-active, experience speech issues and inflated self-esteem.
The mental health conditions related with living alone such as anxiety, common depression disorders and other mental disorders may be treated by asking for support from healthcare services that offer professional assistance.
What can be done?
Reducing levels of loneliness in people living alone is very significant. All one needs to do is to find social support to the people living alone by joining clubs related to personal interests, walking dogs with others in the neighborhood, or cooking together, involving with friends and family more frequently. Meeting and enjoying the company of people with common interests helps treat this problem from its core.