In our regular chat about mental health and wellbeing, a few words on loneliness, and one or two ways to battle it.
Hello: this is the bit of the Film Stories site where we chat about things that may be affecting us, or people around us. It’s just a small weekly piece with a mental health focus. Not everything we write is going to be useful, but hopefully over the course of this series of articles, there’s something we write that might be of use to you or someone you know.
This week, we’re chatting loneliness.
It’s a terrifying statistic, but according to figures from the Office of National Statistics, over three million people in the UK feel what’s described as ‘chronically lonely’. It’s something that affects people more and more as they get older, with the majority over 50. And it’s not a problem that’s relaxing. It’s estimated that nearly half of us feel lonely from time to time. That’s a very different feeling from being happy to have some time to yourself. It’s the feeling that, well you’re alone in the world. And it can get you at pretty much any age.
This article isn’t going to fix that, but hopefully we can offer a couple of suggestions to scratch at the problem at least.
The obvious suggestion is likely the least useful: communicate your loneliness to someone. It can be a friend, a family member, or one of the many brilliant organisations that want to help if that’s not possible. The likes of the Samaritans are interested – as we often say – in people at the start of their tether as well as those at the end. It can’t do much harm to pop an email over to [email protected].
Reaching out to someone is often something people have considered but sometimes feel unable to do though. But there are other ideas that are indirectly along the same lines. Are their local clubs you can join? Any fresh hobbies you can direct some energies into? Also, it’s a frequent suggestion to go and visit a place where there are other people around. A coffee shop or something like that maybe?
At the heart of the suggestions is finding a way to reconnect with people, with the world, ideally both.
But if that feels beyond you – and it’s understandable, not least in present times – then just leave a hello in the comments below and let’s start there? As impersonal as the internet can feel at times, the comments on this site are moderated, and come from human beings. Just say hello, and if you get a hello back, that’s come from a human. A tiny start, but a start.
Thank you so much for reading this piece: it is appreciated, and if anything here applies to you, there’s also a terrific collection of NHS resources. You can find those here.
Wishing you the very, very best. Take care, and thank you again for reading. This column will return next week.
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