How To Deal With Europe's Silent Disease: Loneliness

Six per cent of all Europeans suffer from it (that's 44 million people), but we barely speak about it. And when we do, we rarely refer to it as what it really is – a disease. Just one fact: The risk of death is 26 per cent bigger for people who feel lonely. Loneliness is one of the most lethal killers in developed countries.

Today, scientists speak about loneliness as if it were a chronic disease. They say it is as harmful as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, that it kills more people than obesity. The Red Cross has called it a “silent epidemic”, the product of a bipolar society that connects us and isolates us at the same time.

Equal Times has put together a very interesting piece looking at this pressing problem and the ways public policy can deal with it. Spoiler: there's no magical solution. 

First of all, governments need to acknowledge the scale of the matter. In this sense, the initiative taken in the United Kingdom by creating a 'Ministry of Loneliness' seems very positive. It's true that it may well be a simple marketing operation, as argued by one of the specialists quoted in the text, but it would still be a step in the right direction.

Many people feel lonely and they need to stop seeing that as a personal failure.

This isn't a temporary outbreak—loneliness is here to stay. It's related to our lifestyle, working abroad, smaller families. Also to social media:

“Social media provides another way of communicating, but it doesn’t provide us with the same satisfaction. It is, ultimately, a very superficial type of relationship,” says Francisca Expósito, a psychology professor at the University of Granada. In her view, loneliness is not the absence of relations, but the lack of significant relations. “Not having someone you can relate to is the most painful kind of loneliness.”

Loneliness is curable. It is as easy (and as complicated) as starting to talk to neighbours, engaging in local activities and encouraging others to do the same. Only that way can we manage to live alone without becoming lonely.