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Discussion » Questions » Health and Wellness » While listening to NPR yesterday, a former Surgeon General did a study and found that lonliness is a major heath concern,

While listening to NPR yesterday, a former Surgeon General did a study and found that lonliness is a major heath concern,

as bad as smoking and worse than obesity. I won't go into details as it was a rather lengthy discussion. Did you know of this already?

Posted - October 9, 2017

Responses


  • 22853

    I didn't know of it but the doctor's study's results indicating the importance of loneliness's effects doesn't surprise me.

    (Not really related, but anxiety can seemingly play around with my feelings of health. I'd think, like anxiety and other things, it all could be a potentially easy downward spiral if one did not try to alleviate the causes --  loneliness, anxiety, whatever.) This post was edited by WelbyQuentin at October 9, 2017 4:28 PM MDT
      October 9, 2017 9:00 AM MDT
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  • 44173
    Exactly what he was was saying. Depression and heart disease rates are higher amongst lonely folks.
      October 9, 2017 9:04 AM MDT
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  • 22853
    That's interesting to me. Thanks, Element 99.
    :)
      October 9, 2017 9:16 AM MDT
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  • 46117
    I hate to sound like a know-it-all, but this is a very old piece of news.

    I read about babies dying in Romania because they were simply not held at all.  They had no reason to exist.  Without the human love bond, we cannot thrive.

    It will manifest as a disease in some form or another.  Always.  But, that does not mean that being alone creates the same feeling.  Not at ALL.  I can be alone when I am centered and feeling really the connection with the God force in all of us?  I feel empowered knowing I am never alone and never can be. 

    That has nothing to do with feeling lost and needy and scared.  That is the feeling of lonliness that kills.  The feeling that we need something so badly we cannot thrive without it yet we can never figure out how to keep it around.  That is because what one feels when one feels that way is a false illusion that fear brings on.

    So the real cure for lonliness is knowing that if you take the medicine of just sitting in your aloneness each day until you are no longer afraid, you can move on from it knowing that it was never something you need fear.

    Now you can go out and make friends and be open to whatever comes into your life and enjoy it with or without someone else around you.   If your head is on straight with this, you can sit in a library and have as many minds enter yours and you invite in.  Pick up a good book until the lonely is lessened. This post was edited by WM BARR . =ABSOLUTE TRASH at October 9, 2017 10:22 AM MDT
      October 9, 2017 9:17 AM MDT
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  • 44173
    And let us not forget...one can be lonely in a crowd. I just notice we both spelt loneliness wrong.
      October 9, 2017 9:28 AM MDT
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  • 13071
    ANSWERS PICK!!!!!
      October 9, 2017 10:22 AM MDT
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  • 44173
    Yes dear. (I have been well trained.)
      October 10, 2017 1:16 PM MDT
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  • 13071
    LOL!!
      October 10, 2017 1:56 PM MDT
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  • 19942
    For some people, being alone is depressing which takes a toll on one's health.  Conversely, living with someone you don't like or having to be around people you don't care for in a work environment, let's say, can cause the same feelings.   
      October 9, 2017 9:39 AM MDT
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  • That doesn't surprise me. I know how awful it is to be lonely, and I'm glad that I haven't been in a while. 
      October 9, 2017 9:51 AM MDT
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  • 17364
    We've long known that people in happy relationships tend to live the longest.  For those who stay alone into old age it is very very very important to be socially active and nurture friendships with friends and family.  HOWEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!We should not allow the government, through regulations, to  force old people out of their homes and/or into group settings.  That is coming.  Fight it regardless of your age! This post was edited by Thriftymaid at October 9, 2017 6:00 PM MDT
      October 9, 2017 3:10 PM MDT
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  • 16197
    It doesn't surprise me, being totally alone for a long time would drive me out of my skull. I volunteer for the Red Cross on Saturday mornings, just making phone calls to folks who live alone to make sure they're okay. Most are elderly, all want to chat for a whie - sometimes I'm the only person they speak to that day.
      October 9, 2017 4:17 PM MDT
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  • 22891
    i think its bad too and im one of the lonely people since i never have anyone to hang out with, not sure why
      October 9, 2017 5:00 PM MDT
    1