America has a new epidemic. It can’t be treated using traditional therapies even though it has debilitating and even deadly consequences.
The problem seeping in at the corners of our communities is loneliness and U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy is hoping to generate awareness and offer remedies before it claims more lives.
“Most of us probably think of loneliness as just a bad feeling,” he told USA TODAY. “It turns out that loneliness has far greater implications for our health when we struggle with a sense of social disconnection, being lonely or isolated.”
Loneliness is detrimental to mental and physical health, experts say, leading to an increased risk of heart disease, dementia, stroke and premature death. As researchers track record levels of self-reported loneliness, public health leaders are banding together to develop a public health framework to address the epidemic.
The first step to resolving any problem is first recognizing there is one. The problem is I recognized it over half a decade ago in myself. As someone that suffers from the kind of loneliness as described in the article, I don’t see a way out of it.
Nobody matches with me on dating apps. I live in a U.S. state that oppresses women and is extremely evangelical while I’m staunchly not religious, reversal of Roe v. Wade made dating even more difficult than it already was. It’s depressing to keep increasing the age slider on dating apps as I age out my life.
And nobody cares to help. Regressives are banning books and are probably not far away from banning libraries. Education is a shit show and isn’t nearly as good as it was 11 years ago when I graduated school.
My mental health long since went out the window over 5 years ago while in search of companionship. It bit me so hard that I lost friends during through a legal event and it permanently marred my perspective of other people. It affected me irreversibly and I had to go to court and fight while I had very little will to continue. I won in the end but here I am still lonely as ever.
Can’t trust any psychologist as they try to take money from my insurance while providing unprofessional and unhelpful services like astro-projection YouTube videos and tell me to put my finger on my forehead, and when I tell them this is ridiculous they force my hand to sign under duress or else they’ll hospitalize me and take me away from my job which is very important to me and an outlet for me. They don’t listen to me that what they were doing is actively making things worse. I ended up calling my insurance and telling them what happened at 4am on their 24/7 crisis number. My insurance helped me out in that case but fuck me for trying to get help for it.
I rely on some close online friends for my social activities. But as the article says social media doesn’t actually cure loneliness. I live alone. I no longer cook. I stopped doing dishes. I don’t use my living room really, I have a TV and Couch and all that but they collect more dust than they get used. I have shelves in a box from Target that I never put together because I have been busy sleeping then working then playing games to keep my mental health up. I have insomnia too and take sleep aid that doesn’t always help the insomnia. I can literally lie in my bed for hours without falling asleep.
Then there’s all of the negativity going on in the world like Ukraine-Russia, Israel-Palestine, the Regressives in America which I touched on. Climate change is pretty bad now. Representatives in government don’t care what I have to say and don’t vote how I want them to.
I have sensitivities to cats and dogs and other pets. I can’t own a pet. I tried to during the deepest rut of the loneliness 5 years back but after one week with sneezing itchiness and watery eyes I couldn’t and gave up the pet. It sucks. And of course more than 50% of the women locally here are dog mom’s and you have to love dogs which I definitely don’t. Cats are better than dogs but I’m still allergic. It just would never work without repeated allergy shots or something.
I don’t spend time at bars. I don’t like alcohol unless I’m drinking socially with others and even then it’s typically undesirable. I have other vices but they’re a band-aid and not a cure, and in fact make my health worse. I can’t even improve it because to do so, like edibles instead of smoking, is a felony with jail time here.
Moving away from my home is also personally undesirable but that’s the best cure as I see it. The problem with that is I’m already very established where I live now and it’d be difficult to learn to live somewhere else. Most of my family would be even farther away if I moved to another state that actually cares about health.
Anyway, good article, I’m glad the U.S. surgeon general is taking a stance on loneliness. I hope that the U.S. makes it easier to get the help and the right kind of help. I’ve definitely not been able to.