People suffering from chronic loneliness are at a heightened risk of developing issues with depression. Chronic loneliness, or feelings of loneliness that persist for a long period of time, leave people feeling more than just alone. Often, chronic loneliness leads to a host of difficult symptoms to manage, including depression.

Understanding more about how loneliness contributes to depression is the first step toward identifying the problem and working toward a solution to improve it.

How are loneliness and depression connected?

Imagine you’re spending another evening at home alone. After a long day at work, you interact with plenty of people, but those interactions don’t leave you with a sense of social satisfaction. You’d rather form deeper connections with friends doing mutually-enjoyable activities, but you find yourself at home alone again after work. This pattern has been your norm for months now, leaving you feeling pretty gloomy on top of your usual boredom. Continue reading →

Dealing with loneliness is tricky. As one of the more complicated and painful emotions, learning how to cope with loneliness can feel nearly impossible. However, like with any other emotion, it is possible to manage feelings of loneliness in ways that are healthy.

Way 1 – Acknowledge that you’re feeling lonely….and that it stinks.

This may seem obvious, but it’s true – acknowledging a difficult feeling is a key step of managing it. This is true for any challenging emotion, loneliness included!

When you feel lonely, it’s important to acknowledge a few things about that particular emotion:

1. It’s normal – everybody feels lonely at some point or another.
2. It’s possible to feel better and recuperate from feelings of loneliness.
3. Feeling lonely stinks. While it’s normal to experience, it’s certainly not any fun.

Continue reading →