Loneliness is common in both men and women and the symptoms vary in both genders. You can feel lonely when single, in relationship, married and also when around people. Loneliness can cause mental health deterioration and depression. In men, it is worse because they do not like opening up so they cannot be considered weak. In this article, we are going to discuss the reasons you might feel lonely and solutions to ease your loneliness.
Reasons For Loneliness
Discussed below are the possible reasons of feeling lonely all the time.
1. Trauma
Childhood traumas is the most common cause of loneliness in individuals. Previous physical and verbal abuse cause individuals to have anger issues and loneliness in future and affects their growth. Individuals who have grown up in a toxic homestead are always afraid of igniting relationships. This past occurrence affects an individual’s view about relationships, safety, one’s self worth, trustworthiness of other people and it lowers their self-esteem.
2. Poor attachment with parents
Creating strong bonds starts with your parents. A bad relationship with parents can affect how you relate with other people emotionally. Your parent’s treatment tends to reflect in your important relationships. If you grew up in an environment where you are not valued and threatened, then you develop a feeling of distrust for other people.
3. Depression
Depression makes you have a feeling of emptiness and you always want to disconnect yourself from the world. You feel like no one listens, values of pay attention to you and this will cause you to isolate yourself, causing loneliness. However, depression has treatment options such as talking to a therapist and taking medication. Booking therapy sessions can enable you know the cause of you depression and get the necessary help.
4. Conflict with family and friends
Conflicts with family members make you feel guilty and lonely. If you do not have close bonds with your family, one argument can affect you big time and affect you significantly. You may be having a lot of friends, but lacking a confidant you can talk to about anything will still make you feel empty. You can fix this by solving things with the person involved. You may also feel lonely when a family member you were close to moves away. Major events such as moving to college or family relocating to another city can cause loneliness. Reaching out to them by making phone calls and emails can be a way of easing your burden, or maybe give your inner self some time to get used to their absence.
5. Social anxiety
The fear of being judged by the society can make you fear opening up. However, you need to work on your social contact because you will need support systems when there are major changes happening in your life. Taking part in social activities and igniting friendships can help you overcome loneliness.
6. Fear of vulnerability
Toxic relationships that leave marks in an individual changes their perspective about relationships and make them think it is not okay to be yourself. This pain creates a gap between you and others which can hinder love from getting through. We live in a society where being ‘weak’ is not an option and this creates loneliness because we all reach a breaking point.
Ways To Feel Less Lonely
The following are ways you can use to feel less lonely
1. Identify what makes you feel lonely
The frits step to healing from loneliness is identify what triggers loneliness. May be there are times you opened up and got judges by the society. When you find out whatever is making you feel lonely, then you can begin to handle issues from there. If there is a specific person that affects you negatively, you might want to distance yourself from them.
2. Engage in activities with friends
Catching up with friends at parties and doing common thins can be relaxing and make you have a sense of belonging and building memories. In long distance friendships, you can interact by making video chats and phone calls so as to feel connected even when you are far from each other.
3. Browse online
The online world gives you options of who you can interact with. You can also watch motivational videos that will boost your esteem. You can interact with people online and follow people who motivate you. Platforms like Facebook give you an environment to share your experience so you can help and motivate others too.
4. Meet likeminded people
Sometimes your family or friends may not understand you or match your hobbies and future goals. You may be suffering from mental health issues which they do not understand. Identifying people with the same mindset as yours and connecting with them will light you up. However, it doesn’t mean that you will dump your old relationships, it means that for certain issues, you will turn to other people.
Conclusion
If your loneliness persists after doing the above, perhaps it is time for you to visit a professional. A therapist will help you through and unleash the reason behind your feeling and help you to get over this feeling by prescribing the relevant treatment. Despite past experiences, you can gradually learn to trust people and value yourself despite what people say or think. Try to figure out the root of your loneliness if the feeling persists.
FAQs
1. What causes loneliness?
Loneliness can be as a result of life experiences and changes that may include. Financial problems, the loss of a loved one, family issues, living alone and your family relocating to another city or country.
2. I feel lonely, am I normal?
Every individual feels lonely once in a while and the experience varies from one to the other. loneliness can come when your social expectations are not met.
3. What are the effects of loneliness?
Loneliness is associated with many physical and mental conditions such as; heart disease, anxiety, depression, high blood pressure and may even go to an extent of death.
4. How do people suffering from loneliness feel?
Lonely people tend to distract themselves with other activities in life such as taking trips, stamp collection and hiking.
5. What makes someone not to have friends?
There are people who prefer to be alone and feel discomfort around other people. They have a rough time maintaining relationships because of traits such as being pushy and controlling. Involving a professional to identify why you are not maintaining your relationships is advised in this case.