The Price of Loneliness!!!
The article starts with the author describing a
project while she was a graduate student in social work. She was working
in a hospital. The emergency room had a “revolving door” - many of the
same people showed up on a regular basis. They identified those who lived
alone, and she started calling the patients frequently. Some just wanted
to talk - and their hospital visits were reduced.
The author wrote,
“I think there
were two reasons those phone calls reduced their visits to the hospital: they
felt less lonely, which helped them feel better physically, and feeling
connected with someone meant they were less likely to go to the emergency room
simply to have human contact.”
She goes on to write,
“Clearly, loneliness is a big
problem that can lead to a variety of physical health issues, psychological
problems, and societal issues. Unfortunately, loneliness seems to be a
growing epidemic. Studies show half of Americans are feeling lonely and
isolated.”
There is a difference between
being lonely and being alone. Some alone “down-time” is good for
us. (Hey, even Jesus went away to be alone). But being lonely can
even happen in a crowd. Elderly who live alone are also more susceptible
to being lonely.
Today’s blog has the title of
“The Price of Loneliness” - so what might be the prices?
Again, from the article,
“Researchers have found
that loneliness is just as lethal as smoking 15 cigarettes per day. Lonely
people are 50 percent more likely to die prematurely than those with healthy
social relationships.”
*****
WOW!!! Smoking 15
cigarettes a day? Fifty percent more likely to die early? Those are good
reasons to get over being lonely. (But that is tomorrow’s topic).
When you are alone, you don’t
have anybody to talk to about your health, your finances, or your
relationships. You become isolated (hey - we’ve been encouraged to be
isolated).
On the good side, the article suggests it isn’t QUANTITY, but QUALITY that matters.
With our social isolation, a
group that I volunteer with is stepping up to call seniors and check on
them. Normally, I take these seniors (who don’t have cars) to the doctors
or other appointments. From that, I have two special friends that I have
clicked with (RG and MN).
This new program has volunteers
(like me) calling the seniors, checking up on them, running to the grocery
store (if needed), or other places. Both of my friends are alone.
Fortunately, both have roommates. RG has two cats and MN has a cat and a
dog. Their pets are family for them.
In the program, I’m not to visit
them (as I might be carrying the COVID-19 germs to them) or give them rides to
doctors or other places. (And (oops), I have violated that as I took RG
to the grocery store the other day and I visited MN and we talked earlier this
week.
But, I have used electronic
means to keep in touch. MN loves to text and so we text. She finds
cute dog and cat images and attaches them (and I have to find some other images
to send to her. RG is a phone and an email person. She has a family
that is spread across the country, so she calls some of her sisters (she has
one ‘difficult’ sister who is always negative and doesn’t call her that
much.). Her daughter in California has two girls - 3.5 and 1.5 and that
daughter sends her videos of the girls playing!!
My friend (AP) and I walk
frequently, but she makes a point of calling her senior aunts, her sisters and
brother and her niece frequently.
And, you know what? The
result of me keeping in touch with them helps keep my spirits up!!!
I used a quote on Facebook
today, “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.” (Yes, show them
some love) “If you want to be happy, practice compassion”. Yes, what goes
around, comes around.
Have you been checking in with
seniors and others that might be lonely in this challenging time?
Hugs - and get out there and
show compassion!!!
Karen
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