The Stigma of Loneliness: Why We Stay Silently Lonely

<blockquote> “I don’t believe the cure for loneliness is meeting someone, not necessarily. I think it’s about two things: learning how to befriend yourself and understanding that many of the things that seem to afflict us as individuals are in fact a result of larger forces of stigma and exclusion which can and should be resisted.” — Olivia Laing, The Lonely City </blockquote> I’ve tried it many times, but I can’t. When people ask me what I write about, and I say I write about loneliness, I can’t resist the weight of that word. There’s no pride. No confidence. Instead, my voice falters into a somber, shameful tone — as if someone cast a spell of stifling vulnerability on me. As if the mere statement that I write about loneliness implies that I feel lonely when I say it — and as if that expresses something fundamentally wrong about me. It’s ironic. Having researched, explored, and experienced loneliness for years, I should know there’s nothing to be ashamed of. I should know that, <a href="https://www.cigna.com/static/www-cigna-com/docs/about-us/newsroom/studies-and-reports/combatting-loneliness/cigna-2020-loneliness-report.pdf" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">in</a> <a href="https://www.timeout.com/london/blog/london-is-among-the-loneliest-cities-in-the-world-021617" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">many</a> <a href="https://psychology.org.au/for-members/publications/inpsych/2018/december-issue-6/the-impact-of-loneliness-on-the-health-and-wellbei" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">countries</a>, more than half of the population feels lonely regularly. I should know that loneliness is an <a href="https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/a-history-of-loneliness-how-we-created-the-silent-terror-of-isolation-6d988ae776f5" rel="noopener">inherently human</a> emotion. <a href="https://medium.com/wise-well/the-stigma-of-loneliness-why-we-stay-silently-lonely-142d2753e36b">Click Here</a>