Be less lonely: build and nourish friendships and family ties

Nine reasons why having a supportive network of family and friends is good for us

Strong connections can:

1. Create a comfort zone that helps us feel most ourselves.
2. Provide positive feedback, building confidence, validating our choices, and helping us feel capable.
3. Our friends and family watch out for us!
4. Our closest friends and relatives fortify us with emotional ‘support and encouragement in good times and bad. We all need encouragement, advice, and a listening ear from time to time.
5. Improve our physical health (strong social support even speed recovery from the common cold!).
6. Boost our resilience and mental health (lowering the risk of depression and anxiety).
7. Reduce stress.
8. Help us lose weight and avoid obesity.
9. Reduce the incidence of problematic behaviors including alcohol abuse.

Nurturing your existing relationships and creating new ones will improve your quality of life. Scientific studies have proven that social interactions nourish your mental and physical health. Loneliness has the same impact on mortality as smoking 15 cigarettes a day! (1)

Are you struggling to create or maintain healthy, connected social relationships?

If you want to have strong connections but you just don’t have them, you are not alone. The Cigna US Loneliness Index, a study of 20,000 adults in the United States, found alarming rates of people reporting always or sometimes feeling:

1. No one knows me well (54%)
2. I am alone (46%)
3. I am left out (47%)
4. I  lack companionship (43%)
5. My relationships are not meaningful (43%)
6. I am isolated from others (43%) or I am no longer close to anyone (39%).
7. There is no one I can turn to (36%)

The loneliness epidemic is real, and it predates the isolation and social distancing of the pandemic. Loneliness affects people of all levels of education, all levels of professional achievement, and all ages. While older adults are lonely, young adults are the loneliest group of all. Generation Z and Millennials are the most lonely group of all (with seniors aged 72 and above the least lonely).

It’s just harder today to build new social relationships and maintain the relationships you already cherish

We are experiencing a “perfect storm” of factors that are driving the loneliness epidemic. These factors include smaller families, high divorce rates, shrinking familial ties, more geographic mobility, virtual work, the substitution of messaging and social media for real communications, and the weakening of traditional community institutions. (2) Harvard professor Robert Putnam described many of these factors in Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community.

Reach out today

The loneliness epidemic has hit many of us hard. As we emerge from the pandemic, it is time to reach out for help. You can improve your social relationships, make new friends, and rebuild family ties. Reach out for an initial consult. It’s the first step to better social relationships that will nourish you. Call or fill out the contact form provided. Online therapy is available with Caryn Hess.