showed that 13 per cent of Canadians aged 15 or older reported always or often feeling lonely and that lonely people reported lower life satisfaction and poorer mental health. The survey found that 29 per cent of Canadian women aged 15 to 24 reported always or often feeling lonely.Article content
Loneliness may be triggered by something specific — a loss, say, or a pandemic — but not always, said Murthy. It can show up in different ways, including social withdrawal, anger or irritability. And, as he learned from personal experience he described in, loneliness “can chip away at your self-esteem and erode your sense of who you are.”
Loneliness can be broken down into two categories: social loneliness, as in “I feel separated from the group,” and emotional loneliness, as in “I am lacking contact with a meaningful person,” said There are the times “you just want someone around in the space, to hear them breathe or sigh or drop something — especially in the middle of the night when you wake up and you’re scared and maybe you heard a noise, or when you have something small to celebrate but it’s too small-fry to text someone about.”
But she did not enjoy the final decade of her work life, in a call centre. “It’s the way people are over the phone: You get yelled and sworn at.” Eventually, the job caused her to have a breakdown. “Something just snapped,” she said. At 60, she stopped work and went on disability.Article content Our need for community is powerful, said psychologist Frank — and, during the pandemic, many community interactions disappeared. People accustomed to being alone didn’t suffer as much as gregarious types who really like the company of others, but they missed casual encounters with people like the bank teller or dry cleaner, they told her.Article content