Loneliness Epidemic

US Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, has discussed the epidemic of loneliness and isolation faced by Americans today. He began his conversation back in 2020 before we even could comprehend the lasting effects of mandating or requiring isolation – and concerns have continued to grow the past 4 years. He wrote a report about it that was published in 2023 that can be found here (https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf)

 

We still don’t quite comprehend the lasting damage of loneliness or isolation on individuals. What we do know is that humans are wired for connection and attachment. We need other people. Throughout these few blogs we will explore some of what loneliness means and what we’ve started to learn about its impact on our mental and physical health. 

 

Touch starvation – there was a study done in 1959 by Harry Harlow to explore attachment, connection, and maternal bonding. Through the study he explored the impact of social isolation in a fairly social species of monkeys, they were infant monkeys without their mother. In their cages they were given two surrogate mother figures; one was a wire mother only with the food there and the other was a cloth made mother. The monkeys in isolation, when introduced to the surrogates, would go to the wire mother for food and then stayed for hours with the comfort, cloth mother. This was later called contact comfort. 

 

Here is a video to see examples from the Harlow study: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrNBEhzjg8I). Additional video explanation of what lessons persisted through time and exploring that this study today is considered highly unethical (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEEEu1HEtU0) Although there were important lessons learned, they were later seen to have great moral implications on the impact of forced isolation on another living being. That being said, Harlow showed that comfort, nurturing, and support took priority over food when there was a choice.

 

Touch starvation continued – other non-human mammals will scratch out their fur when isolated for too long. For inmates in solitary confinement in prisons across the world have little to no access to human contact, sanitary napkins, medicine, or exercise. In the US they can spend an average of 8-12 months isolated; in Germany it is an average of 8 hours (NBC). These inmates are more likely to turn to self-harm and attempt suicide (Luigi et al., 2020). 

 

Loneliness as a “silent epidemic”. This epidemic is affecting close to 50% of the US population and negatively impacting people’s mental and physical health. More than 25% of emergency room visits are said to be related to loneliness (The United States Surgeon General; Murthy 2020). This epidemic is worse for people with high Adverse Childhood Experiences (Landry, et al., 2022; Lin & Chiao (2020)). 

 

Contributors to isolation and loneliness include: social media, technology, lack of social engagement in person, high amounts of stress, over working, financial stressors, medical care barriers, food insecurity, fears of rejection and abandonment. Misunderstandings, microaggressions, assumptions, and discrimination. 

 

Loneliness doesn’t refer to being physically alone in a particular environment; sometimes this feeling becomes worse in a crowd. Loneliness is related to feeling alone in our hearts – it is the feeling of being emotionally disconnected from others. 

 

We can frequently feel alone in our experiences, this may or may not be true. When we perceive we are alone and that others don’t understand or get what we are going through; we suffer. That suffering increases the more we hold to that belief we are alone. This is also exacerbated when we feel disconnected from ourselves, others, our sense of self, or our purpose. 

 

Next time we will explore how loneliness can show up in behaviors, thoughts, mental and physical health.