Is there a vaccine for loneliness?

"All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

Well, maybe "all" is an exaggeration.  But, most people do seem to be unable to sit quietly in a room with other people or by themselves.

Covid is testing our abilities to sit quietly in a room alone.  Like the recent case of a woman who was placed in a 14-day mandatory hotel quarantine upon returning from abroad.  The woman couldn't stand her loneliness, I suppose; the hotel security caught her and a man working in the hotel in an inappropriate encounter.  He was fired. 

That quote about man's inability to sit quietly is from 1654.  All I am saying is that this is not a new problem.

There is a difference between loneliness and solitude.  A huge difference.

One can be in the middle of the noisiest and tightest crowds like in the congested Ranganathan Street and yet feel lonely.  Loneliness is a state of mind where the person is craving for company because the person does not like being alone. Perhaps even hates being alone.

Solitude is different.

Solitude is not boredom either.  Boredom begins when people do not know what to with their "free" time. Solitude is intentional.  It is activity even when being inactive, or inactive even when being active.  It is that wonderful combination of actively doing nothing while being all by oneself.

We do not often seek loneliness, but there are times that we seek solitude.

You end up isolated if you don't cultivate the capacity for solitude, the ability to be separate, to gather yourself. Solitude is where you find yourself so that you can reach out to other people and form real attachments. When we don't have the capacity for solitude, we turn to other people in order to feel less anxious or in order to feel alive. When this happens, we're not able to appreciate who they are. It's as though we're using them as spare parts to support our fragile sense of self. We slip into thinking that always being connected is going to make us feel less alone. But we're at risk, because actually it's the opposite that's true. If we're not able to be alone, we're going to be more lonely.

"If we're not able to be alone, we're going to be more lonely."

Loneliness is a serious health issue.

The health implications of loneliness have become clearer over time. According to the research of Julianne Holt-Lunstad, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University, and colleagues, the heightened risk of mortality from loneliness equals that of smoking 15 cigarettes a day or being an alcoholic, and exceeds the health risks associated with obesity. Researchers are now actively studying the mechanisms by which loneliness affects health, including its relationship with inflammation and harmful changes in DNA expression.

Now, add the effect of COVID-19--the social distancing and shelter-in-place and more.

“A major adverse consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to be increased social isolation and loneliness,” argued several professors in The Lancet Psychiatry in April. “Tracking loneliness and intervening early are important priorities.”

We have to wait for the world to be vaccinated for us to end this new wave of loneliness.  It will be quite a wait though :(