Types of loneliness should be known by you all for a better understanding of the lonely phase you are going through. Further reading will enlighten you on this topic.
Loneliness is in the air!
Loneliness is also in the heir.
It too lingers in the pair.
Loneliness hides behind the care.
Some cry when people don’t hear.
Others don’t have that much of a dare.
Some curse it for not being fair.
Others placidly bear.
Now I know it’s not mere rather it’s everywhere.
People who don’t experience Loneliness are rare.
SIMRA SAJID
The above poem depicts several types of loneliness that are there in our lives like:
- Loneliness in the air is ‘Existential Loneliness.’
- In the heir is ‘Inheritable Loneliness.’
- In pair is ‘Emotional Loneliness.’
- Behind the care is ‘Social-contagion Loneliness.’
- When people don’t hear is ‘Transient Loneliness.’
- When the sufferer doesn’t dare is ‘Chronic Loneliness.’
- Cursing for not being fair is ‘Social-Media Loneliness.’
- Those who placidly bear is ‘Self-Perpetuating Loneliness.’
And so on and so forth. I hope you can now relate to it even more.
Loneliness blesses us with a mess. Yeah, it’s getting into our nerves with each passing breath. Loneliness is neither a novel word nor a feeling. It is a subjective experience. Its causes and consequences vary from person to person.
But in this article, we’ll talk about types of loneliness in detail. Apparently, we know about it but hardly do we make attempts to know its types for devising the desired solution of the type of loneliness we are suffering with.
What benefit do you have by knowing the types of loneliness? Well, the answer is a better understanding of the issue, its root causes, effects, its consequences, and the much-needed solution.
Underneath is a list of all the types of loneliness. Read them for having a better comprehension.
Let’s get started and check out the types of loneliness.
Table of Contents
Types Of Loneliness
Below are some major types of loneliness. Look at each of them for knowing the type you are suffering from.
1 – Existential Loneliness
Loneliness to an extent is unavoidable by human beings because it is a deep-rooted subjective emotion that arises time and again within a being. Every person suffers from aloneness at least once in their entire life.
Loneliness to a degree is appreciable because it enables beings to value certain things, people, and emotions in one’s life.
In existential loneliness, a person doesn’t feel lonely because of a lack of close companions in their lives rather it is a type that surrounds the individual’s own existence and purpose in the larger games of life.
Existential loneliness happens when you lose your sense of purpose and belonging. It’s scary because it hints towards a personality crisis emerging due to your own lack of a bigger purpose that stirs your soul up.
2 – Inheritable Loneliness/Genetic Loneliness
In the same given situation, some people may be adequately satisfied by the kinds of relationships they had and, some people may be much more lonely than expected and this drastic dissimilarity is due to genes.
In the latest research, Abraham Palmer, PhD, professor of psychiatry and vice chair for basic research at UC San Diego School of Medicine and his team examined genetic and health information from 10,760 people aged 50 years and older and found that loneliness is 14 to 27 per cent genetic.
Hence, it is to a degree, inheritable.
3 – Social Loneliness
Social loneliness is driven by lacking profound and meaningful social connections and communications. People do have different personality types that henceforth decide their interaction in a social environment.
Some people are introverted with qualities like social awkwardness and shyness that turn out to be repelling features while connecting with other human beings.
They lack a broader social circle that instils in them a feeling of irrelevance, desertion, and alien to a social network hence branding them under the category of social isolation.
4 – Emotional Loneliness
Emotional Loneliness is caused by feeling emotionally empty and unattended by close relatives due to lacking in-depth and satisfying relationships. It is one of the major types of loneliness.
It is deeper inner turmoil provoked by deprivation of close meaningful relationships like proper attention of parents, partner, and other trauma and life changes that plagues your soul and makes you emotionally troublesome and lonely.
Seneca the Younger, a Roman Philosopher, rightly said,
“Man is a social animal.”
Thus, we need strong attachments and affiliations to feel and sense emotional stability.
In 1997, Enrico DiTommaso and Barry Spinner separated emotional loneliness into Romantic and Family loneliness.
We’ll see both types below.
5 – Family Loneliness
Family loneliness is caused due to lacking serious and significant family connections. Family is an integral part of an individual’s life but if the very family of a person fails to make that person feel safe and home then that’s a big disappointment.
Even a study of 1,009 students found that it is linked with the raised frequency of self-harm.
6 – Romantic Loneliness
Romantic loneliness is faced by people who are involved in an emotionally cold relationship with their romantic partner. Adolescents who lack committed romantic relationships and close bonds with their partners do feel lonely and depressed.
If relationships provide proper emotional intimacy then the person involved in romantic relationships feels less lonely than the ones who are single.
7 – Cultural Loneliness
Culture is not only customs and traditions of a society and community you belong to, its pieces also take a root in your hearts thus, making you yearn for it once you part with your culture. It is sort of a home-sickness.
It keeps you nostalgic and yearning, therefore, cultivating the feelings of cultural loneliness.
“We as humans dread foreign feelings let alone foreign lands.”
Immigrants experience cultural seclusion in a non-native land with a stranger atmosphere.
Research shows it is strong especially for students with collective cultures who go to study in individualist cultural countries.
8 – Situational Loneliness
Isolation caused by different kinds of situations is known as situational loneliness. Yes, situations and circumstances do affect us differently. There is an abundance of situations that cause us to be lonely because of shifts in our level of ease and satisfaction. Below are some common triggers for them:
- Shifting to a new location
- Getting into a new relationship
- Becoming a new mother
- Bumping into unfavourable situations
- Poor mental health conditions
These are a few examples of situational loneliness.
9 – Chronic Loneliness
It is an everlasting kind of aloneness that becomes a way of life. It becomes permanent for the person because of its longevity and density.
Isolation for a longer period of time without any outside hindrance can lead to cynicism and suspicion.
The person gets caught in this eternal cycle of loneliness and loses their peace and life.
It is correlated with a high risk of obesity, cardiovascular issues, cholesterol, suicidal thoughts, and death.
10 – Transient Loneliness
The aloneness which exists for a short period is called transient loneliness. It is a temporary feeling of loneliness that is often linked with beneficial outcomes like strong relationships and better appreciation of your blessings.
11 – Self-Perpetuating Loneliness
If loneliness persists for a longer period in anyone’s life then the person becomes socially inept or dorky. The individual might face various types of inadequate social apprehension like hyperalertness.
The person itself becomes the catalyst of his own lonely state that’s why it is termed self-perpetuating loneliness and it’s a big obstruction in building new relationships and maintaining existing relationships.
Thus, making oneself lonelier and getting into a type of eternal isolation cycle.
12 – Social Media Loneliness
Ironically, Social Media has been made to interact, to connect, and to be a healthy pastime. But Social Media and loneliness move hand in hand now.
Miserably, the data we are getting regarding Social Media playing a pivotal role in lonely beings is increasing.
Over 4.48 billion people use social media worldwide and it has been reported 71% in heavy social media users and 51% in light social media users.
The top reasons for being lonely among social media users are fear of missing out (FOMO), cyberbullying, and the illusory ideal self.
Social media is a platform that rather than connecting people together is making them lonelier.
People see the pictures of others and feel a sense of inferiority-complex that is, “I am not good enough.”
There is also a high risk of cyber threats and bullying.
13 – Social-Contagion Loneliness
It can be contaminated as well. It can transfer from one person to another in a group too.
John Cacioppo, psychologist of the University of Chicago and one of the nation’s leading scholars of loneliness said, “We detected an extraordinary pattern of contagion that leads people to be moved to the edge of the social network when they become lonely”.
There can also be chances that if a person loses one of his friends he might become unusually suspicious of his other friends and might lose them too in the process, thus making them lonely too.
So, social-contagion is also one of the solid types of loneliness.
14 – Lockdown Loneliness
In case of lockdown caused by any emergency situations as the COVID-19 pandemic, loneliness can creep into our lives. Lockdown isolation can be caused by social distancing and disconnections from your loved ones for a longer period of time.
Our emotions were left untouched if we got disconnected and, a continuous lingering of fear makes us more vulnerable to loneliness.
15 – Mental Health Loneliness
Our mental health is extremely significant and in-tune with our whole periphery.
Mental health loneliness is a byproduct of various types of mental health issues like depression, anxiety, bipolar and many more.
It is caused as an outcome of suffering from any kind of mental illness.
Loneliness caused as a result of other mental health issues is known as mental health loneliness.
Above are 15 fundamental types of loneliness. They always have been sure-footed in our lives and literature.
It is always better to know the different types of loneliness, for preparing ourselves to fight it off in the best possible manner.
We all should make sure that our time, energy, and efforts be inclined and channelized at the right thing.
Loneliness often pounces upon us in our emptiness. It is always better to have a greater purpose in life to hold on to so as not to become disappointed at small disappointments.
I hope the clubbing of all types of loneliness will help you in your respective lives by furnishing a useful insight.
Do let me know if you or any of your acquaintances are suffering from any of the above types of loneliness down in the comment box. Kindly drop your valuable feedback to improve my work even more.
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Thank You!