Loneliness: Encyclopedia II - Loneliness - Common causes

Loneliness - Common causes

People can experience loneliness for many reasons. The first experience of loneliness for most people is the first time they are left to themselves as a baby. If none of the child's actions will lead to the presence of a carer, the experience of loneliness has been established. Moreover, this experience is then connected to a feeling of being helpless.

All kinds of life events seem to be related to loneliness. Loneliness is a very common response to divorce or the breakup of any important long-term relationship. Loneliness can be a response to a specific situation or event, such as the death or extended absence of a loved one. Loneliness may also occur after the birth of a child, after marriage or after any minor or major life event. It is becoming clear that loneliness is in fact caused by a person's inability to cope with changes in his or her life patterns*.

Loneliness can occur in marriages or similar close relationships where there is anger/resentment or a lack of "loving" communication.

Loneliness, perhaps ironically, occurs frequently in heavily populated cities; in these cities many people feel utterly alone and cut-off, even when surrounded by thousands or even millions of other people.

Loneliness can also result from low self-esteem or from being valued for shallow external reasons that have little or no connection to the person inside.

Some say that loneliness has become a major problem of modern times. At the beginning of the last century families were typically larger, and very few people lived alone. Today however, the trend has reversed direction: over a quarter of the U.S. population lived alone in 1998. In 1995, 24 million Americans lived in single-person households; by 2010, it is estimated that number will have increased to around 31 million.

It's not just a problem of more people living alone. Familial connections are much more tenuous than they used to be. Nowadays, it is not at all unusual for family members to be separated by hundreds or even thousands of miles.

Learning to cope with these changes in life patterns is essential in overcoming loneliness.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Common causes", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki