lifestyle-interventions: January 2022

3 John 2

Isolation and loneliness: A Troublesome Pair

The desired target for this article includes parents, grandparents, children, the elderly, caregivers, veterans, those with chronic illness, college students, first responders, victims of crime, widows, widowers and all medical personnel.

So, there is a wide spectrum of people groups who are affected by isolation and loneliness.

‘Other Vital Ties’

Connection to other human beings is not the only important connection; there are other entities that deepen the significance of our daily life:

· Family of origin

· Immediate family

· Friends and community

· Work, Mission, activity

· Beauty

· The past

· Nature and special places

· Pets and other animals

· Ideas and information

· Institutions and organizations

· What-ever is beyond knowledge

· Your self

Connecting with work, projects and current activities often provides a sense of purpose that has been shown to add almost 7 years to life expectancy, according to the work of Blue Zones with Dan Buettner and his group. It takes mindfulness to accomplish this, using all of the individual’s senses to enjoy their present moments.

Barriers to Social Connection

Why is the level of social connectedness decreased so significantly? This decline could help explain the concomitant rise that has been reported in various emotional responses, such as loneliness, isolation, and alienation. The several barriers to this somewhat complex and multi-dimensional dilemma would include:

· Technology including Smart phones, social media and a glut of information in general, especially the marketing frenzy.

· Lack of self-confidence to include low self-esteem

· A decrease in interpersonal skills; this would include lack of assertiveness and not encouraging others.

· Reluctance to interact with others; e.g. avoiding social situations

· Poor communication skills, for example inability to listen to others and grasp the subtleties of the interaction.

· Fear of change: resistance to taking action

· Their surroundings; this would include living in an environment where there is a minimal number of actual opportunities for connection.

Adverse Health Effects of Social Isolation

· Social connection is generally health promoting, but isolation can have negative mental and physical repercussions. It can initiate and perpetuate a person’s feelings of low self-worth, shame, and depression.

· Fear of interacting with others

· May create a sense of disconnectedness from society as a whole

· A landmark 1979 Study found that in a random sample of 6928 adults, that people who lacked social and community ties were more likely to die in the follow up observational period than those with more extensive contacts.

· Disrupted sleep patterns

· Depressed immune function

· Higher levels of stress hormones

· High blood pressure

· Increased levels of inflammation

· Higher risk of coronary heart disease.

· Negatively impacts hormonal regulation

· A study published in the American Journal of Public Health that used the Social Network Index to measure isolation found that lower scores were associated with a risk of mortality similar to smoking!

· People who have a low amount of social connection tend to be more vulnerable to mental health conditions, such as anxiety, depression, and antisocial behavior.

Steps to enhance a person’s level of social connection and decrease loneliness:

Among the more immediate, actionable steps that can help people prevent or overcome loneliness are the following:

· Accept individuals as they are. Try to build trust with them gradually.

· Try to have an uplifting attitude and be confident. Most people prefer to associate with positive individuals.

· If they live alone, consider getting a roommate or a pet.

· Be aware that loneliness is a signal that something needs to change.

· Consider volunteering for community service or another activity that they enjoy.

· Focus on developing quality relationships with people who share similar attitudes, interests, and values with them.

· Expect the best from themselves as well as in others.

· Periodically, think of something that makes them happy or provides them with a sense of enjoyment.

· Identify reasons why they feel lonely.

· Start a journal to track their thoughts and feelings

· Realize that they are not alone – feeling a sense of loneliness is part of human nature.

· Challenge themselves to take initiative in developing social relationships.

· Understand the effects that loneliness can have on their lives –both mentally and physically.

· Remind yourself that reversing loneliness and isolation requires a forward -looking attitude and perseverance.

· Without positivity, relapsing again into the doldrums is much more likely.

· Finally, social interaction promotes general cognitive function, given that participating in a discussion requires listening, practicing empathy to understand the viewpoints of others, memorizing data, updating information and inhibiting inappropriate responses, all of which are cognitive executive functions.

Miscellanea

· A clear distinction exists between feeling lonely and being socially isolated. Loneliness is a subjective mental state; if people think they are lonely, then they are lonely.

· Being socially isolated is a physical state that results from a lack of contact with people. Both of these have negative health-related consequences.

· The causes of loneliness vary; emotional, physical, and social factors can contribute to feelings of loneliness.

· Depression can interfere with relationships, work and the ability to get through the day. Treatment works and can help you deal with depression symptoms.

· Stress and anxiety are normal responses to difficult situations that can interfere with your life if they never go away.

· Social isolation has been recognized as a major risk factor for morbidity and mortality in humans for more than a quarter of a century. Although the focus of research has been on objective social roles and health behavior, the brain is the key organ for forming, monitoring, maintaining, repairing, and replacing salutary connections with others. Accordingly, population-based longitudinal research indicates that perceived social isolation (loneliness) is a risk factor for morbidity and mortality independent of objective social isolation and health behavior. Human and animal investigations of neuroendocrine stress mechanisms that may be involved suggest that chronic social isolation increases the activation of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenocortical axis, and these effects are more dependent on the disruption of a social bond between a significant pair than objective isolation per se. Research indicates that perceived social isolation is a risk factor for, and may contribute to poorer overall cognitive performance, faster cognitive decline, poorer executive functioning and increased negativity. Also, involved is depressive cognition and heightened sensitivity to social threats. These differences in attention and cognition impact emotions, decisions, behaviors and interpersonal interactions that can contribute to the association between loneliness and cognitive decline and between loneliness and morbidity more generally.

Autism: Sulforaphane, a healing phytonutrient found in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and brussels sprouts, has now been found to successfully improve autism symptomology; specifically, the clinical finding was that 2 to 3 servings of cruciferous vegetables a day improves social interaction, abnormal behavior, and verbal communication within a matter of weeks.

Violence: involves a pathological involvement with others, symbolizing the difficulty these people have in initiating and maintaining healthy interactions with others. Violent acting out can be seen in persons with personality disorders, depression, those experiencing severe stress reactions, and in some cases those with addiction.

Addiction: Addiction is an illness in which the addict’s primary relationship is with objects or events and not with people. As time goes on, it becomes second nature for the addict to treat people as objects. Treating people as objects eventually leads to greater distance and more isolation from others.

Suicidality: When and if the isolated person begins having thoughts and visions of harming self or others, we have then a serious mental health case and possibly the need for law enforcement involvement. Many if not most of these folks need to be admitted to the hospital for observation and further assessment. Deep inside the addicted person, the aloneness and isolation create a center that is craving emotional connection with others. These folks are often afraid of ending up alone. In their desperation, they may show a childlike quality: they attempt to connect with others by clinging to family or friends and often become very upset if it appears that people are withdrawing from them.

Crying spells: Are not desirable or normal and are the picture of loneliness and isolation, as well as an indication of dysphoria, or acute stress.

The Culture: In today’s culture we are enmeshed in anger, violence, divisiveness, boundary violation, racism, brainwashed people of all ages, and many cynical people. This combination of traits may lead to revolution and violent actions that facilitate isolation due to legitimate concerns about safety.

One way to conceptualize loneliness and isolation is to see this as a mental health issue that often requires intervention. Indeed, we can see these two behavioral and psycho-emotional issues as part of depressive syndromes. And, there is an important overlap between the etiology of isolation, loneliness, sadness and various depressive syndromes.

Recommendations

· Assertiveness training is critical to counter the growing isolation taking place in many groups.

· It is important squished to provide formal mental health intervention for that subgroup of people who are not only lonely and isolated, but those who also have intrusive suicidal ideation and ruminations.

· Those contemplating homicidal actions obviously also require intervention.

· As Christians, we learned that God loves us and wants us to be healthy and to share the Gospel message with others. Christian morality is a counter to isolation and loneliness.

References

Buettner, Dan: ‘Blue Zones, lessons for living longer from the people who lived the longest,’ National Geographic Society, 2008.

Frates, Beth; Bonnet, Jonathan; Joseph, Richard; Peterson, James: ‘lifestyle medicine handbook: An introduction to the power of healthy habits,’ Healthy learning, 2019.

Gurman, Alan and Kniskern, David: ‘Handbook of Family Therapy, Volume 2, Brunner/Mazel, Publishers, 1991

Kernberg, Paulina and Chazan, Saralea: ‘Children with Conduct Disorder, a psychotherapy manual’, Basic books, 1991.

Katz, David L.: ‘Disease proof, slash your risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and more by 80%,’ The Penguin Group, 2014.

Nakken, Craig: ‘The Addictive Personality, the Roots of Rituals’ the Hazleton foundation, 1988.

William (Bill) Zahler, MSW, MPA, DipACLM

Website & Blog: lifestyle – interventions.com

YouTube: William Zahler

Facebook: William Zahler

Email: wazahler@gmail.com

January 8, 2022

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