What Can Loneliness Lead To? It’s a relevant question to ask.
You know, there are times when you are all messed up, don’t know where to go, whom to ask, and how to get out of the labyrinth you are lost in.
And that’s the time you need to be excessively finicky about your mental sanity.
“Apparently, loneliness is nothing as such but, actually, it is everything at its worst.”
Loneliness itself is detrimental but, the diseases it gives birth to make you much more predisposed to a life-threatening medical condition.
You’ll find all the probable ailments you can catch through loneliness.
What Can Loneliness Lead To
We have got you! Here you’ll find the answer to your question. It will serve as a precautionary note to shake you off of your slumber before it’s too late.
Keep on reading to find the probable offshoots of loneliness.
Table of Contents
1 – Depression
See how feelings of loneliness, if out of proportion, can kick you in the arms of depression, a complex mental illness.
Lori Ryland, a licensed clinical psychologist in Kalamazoo, Michigan, said, “Depression can be triggered by loneliness following a breakup, divorce, or death of a loved one.”
Even a literature review in 2018, found that loneliness was considered a moderately significant variable in a sample of 40,068 individuals living with depression.
There is absolutely a link between the two.
2 – Anxiety
Anxiety is one of the significant extensions of loneliness. Your unstable mental state will make you anxious and nervous. You will start panicking.
The therapist Nancy B. Irwin, PsyD, says, “Depression and anxiety are like flip sides of the same coin.” They both can coexist as many of their symptoms are overlapping.
A worldwide survey from 2015 found that 41.6% of people reported having both major depression and an anxiety disorder during the same 12-month period.
3 – Disturbed Brain Functions
There can be malfunctioning in your brain due to loneliness. Your thinking process and your abilities to remember and imagine will also get affected by your feelings of aloneness.
4 – Progression In Alzheimer’s Disease
Loneliness is linked with an increased risk of Dementia and Alzheimer’s
Disease. Several studies depict the role of feeling alone in Alzheimer’s.
5 – Anhedonia
One of the effects of loneliness includes Anhedonia(unable to feel happy in normally pleasurable activities). Loneliness works as a catalyst due to the lack of required emotional support.
6 – Sleep Inconsistencies
You will experience your share of sleep-related problems. You might face sleepless nights or you can even oversleep. It would be difficult for you to catch hold of your usual sleeping routine during your loneliness.
7 – Flawed Decision Making
It will lead to inadequate decision-making. Your decision is a choice you choose for your own life, be it financial, social, or personal. If your decisions are poor and insufficient, they will directly affect the quality of your life.
8 – High Cholesterol
Loneliness is not caused by being alone, it is rather caused by feeling alone.
The relationships we have with people is fundamental in our life. The quality of relationships plays a major role in determining our health.
Feeling lonely can lead to high cholesterol levels in people and can be life-threatening.
9 – High Blood Pressure
Recent studies have shown loneliness increases the amount of blood pressure. Lonely people have blood pressure as much as 30 points higher than non-lonely people.
It also worsens the risk of heart attack and stroke.
10 – Cancer
Men, Be cautious! A Finnish study shows loneliness among middle-aged men is associated with an increased risk of cancer.
11 – Lethargy
Decreased energy and inactivity are also a consequence of loneliness among people. It will make it hard for you to function properly. Research has shown it impacts productivity and retention among workers.
12 – Suicidal Tendencies
It is associated with suicidal behaviour. In 2017, 1,588 young people under 35 in the UK took their own lives. Particularly, youngsters, who are fundamentally alone struggle with suicidal ideations and self-harm.
13 – Obesity
It will also lead to obesity. When we are lonely, we take refuge in our favourite foods(Oops, junk food) and tend to overeat and this will lead to obesity when repeated consistently over a period of time.
14 – Diabetes
A 2020 study tracked more than 4,000 people over 12 years and found those who were more lonely at the start of the study were more likely to develop type 2 diabetes.
It does play a significant role in the development of type 2 diabetes.
15 – Increased Stress
Heightened stress level is found in lonely individuals. It will further negatively impact our immunity. Your body will respond poorly while handling stress.
16 – Low Self-Esteem
It will negatively impact your self-confidence too. It will definitely lead to insecurity and self-distrust. Constant feelings of aloneness over a good period of time will cost you dearly psychologically.
17 – Body Aches
What Can Loneliness Lead To? Regular body aches and pain is one of the definite answers. It will not only impact you mentally but also physically.
18 – Drug and Alcohol Abuse
Studies prove that people who experience loneliness are more under the influence of drug and alcohol abuse problems. So, it’s an alarming sign for lonely people to take heed of their condition and not indulge in negativity and toxicity.
19 – Antisocial Behaviour
It will instill antisocial behavior within you. It will make you violent and disruptive and you’ll spread that among others, this way, you become a problem both for you and the world.
20 – Cardiovascular Diseases
Feeling lonely makes you more prone to cardiovascular issues. The analysis of 181,000 adults discovered that loneliness, social isolation, or both were linked to a 29 percent higher risk of heart attack and a 32 percent greater risk of stroke.
21 – Emptiness
There is this feeling of emptiness and nothingness that will overwhelm you. It will create a fog and will block your vision and thoughts. It will push you further into sadness.
22 – Disrupts Immunity
Loneliness affects you and alters your immune system. Researchers say their findings suggest loneliness disrupts fight-or-fight signaling, which leads to increased production of immature monocytes, causing lower antiviral responses and increased inflammation.
23 – Decreased Memory
It’s one of the poor effects of prolonged feelings of loneliness on your brain. It will result in memory decline and make you mentally weaker. Decreased memory will impact your everyday life, making it tougher for you to handle.
24 – Difficulty Learning
Again, that’s pretty natural, if it’s affecting your memory it surely will learning and retention power. Studies depict students with loneliness as having poor academic achievements and low grades and vice versa.
25 – Feeling Worthless
It will make you feel unwanted and valueless. The biggest impact is that it will make you stoop low in your own eyes, let alone in other people’s eyes.
If you lose respect for yourself, nobody’s respect will suffice for it.
26 – Feeling Hopeless
It will make you feel futile and fruitless. Hopelessness will take all over you. You will lose the charm of life and don’t want to hold on to it. Your own self will feel like a burden for you.
27 – Difficulty Concentrating
You’ll feel scattered all over the place, you’ll fail to collect and organize yourself. You’ll be troubled by a lack of concentration and engagement. You can’t even anchor yourself at a given place for a given time and for your own good.
What Can Loneliness Lead To? Above are the following comprehensive answers. So, I hope you will find this piece alarming and beneficial.
How Not To Be Lonely: Golden Tip
- You know, with the inclusion of materialistic ideologies in our lives, we are losing touch with people. We are all drifting apart, some, perhaps, are realizing it, and others might be ignorant of this fact. One thing that we all can do and should do to escape the feelings of loneliness and unease is to have honest conversations with close ones. I think we all should be strong enough to be willing to become vulnerable by pouring our hearts out to them, if they are your true companions they’ll listen, understand and correct you and if they aren’t good enough, luckily you’ll get to them in your adversity. As simple as that. Just go for it. Talk your problems out because you are human like every other human.
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