Loneliness and social isolation significantly impact individuals’ physical and mental health, affecting their quality of life. Loneliness is the subjective feeling of lacking the desired quality of relationships with others. The actual relationship does not match the desired quality and quantity of social engagement. Loneliness arises from the negative and maladaptive beliefs and thoughts about individuals, others, and the world. On the other hand, social isolation is the absence of socially integrative relationships or a breakdown of social networks.
Reasons for negative perceptions about loneliness
- Self-stigma
Self-stigma is the negative appraisal of a personal characteristic or behavior. Loneliness is viewed as a sign of inadequacy or weakness. People who appear lonely are perceived as less desirable, less psychologically adjusted, and less competent. This view may affect how other people feel about being alone.
- Distorted social cognition
Underestimation or overestimation of the level of happiness and loneliness of other people can increase the risk of loneliness. For instance, people perceived as more affluent, extroverted, or with more friends are viewed as happier. In contrast, individuals who lack those factors feel a greater sense of loneliness. Viewing personal lives as inferior to others develops dissatisfaction, increasing loneliness.
- Social media use
Social media often highlights a happy, positive, and satisfying life, causing unhealthy comparisons. These comparisons fuel dissatisfaction in social lives, making people more vulnerable to loneliness because they do not share the same experiences as with other people on social media.
Disability amplifies loneliness and social isolation
Disability was a significant contributor to the experience of feeling alone and isolation. People with disabilities feel alienated from others because of their negative perceptions of their physical characteristics. They think they are not good enough or do not belong because of bodily differences. For instance, shared activities provide great opportunities in building connections, but due to physical limitations, people with disability cannot join others. Instead, they feel emotionally disconnected from other people. Furthermore, these physical differences affect the identity formation of people with disabilities. It can cause peer rejections, making them at risk of loneliness and isolation. Moreover, failing to meet the expected bodily standards adds more to their loneliness and disconnection.
Also, lack of affiliation with social institutions, such as the workplace, can increase feeling lonely since work is often a great source of social connections. Moreover, disability can hinder a person from establishing a close relationship with other people, such as family members or a significant someone.
These disability-related factors disempower people with disabilities and feed their loneliness and social isolation. However, loneliness and isolation are not primarily attributed to the physiological nature of the impairment. Most of the time, it is brought by the structural and environmental barriers within the community.
Risk factors for loneliness and social isolation
- Unemployment
- Mental health issues
- Lack of social engagements or activities
- Poverty
- Low self-esteem
Loneliness vs. Solitude
Being alone does not necessarily imply that a person is lonely because, in some instances, alone time is needed to foster creativity or achieve inner peace.
Feeling lonely is a negative emotional state that happens when there is a perceived gap between the actual and desired quality of relationships. In contrast, solitude is a neutral or positive emotional state that allows individuals to disengage from others’ demands and has different psychological benefits. Benefits of solitude include:
- enhancement of emotion regulation;
- improvement of the quality of relationships;
- promotion of positive psychological adjustment and life satisfaction; and
- stimulation of creativity.
Cognitive reappraisal
Cognitive reappraisal is the alteration or reinterpretation of the negative meaning of a situation into a more adaptive emotional response about the life situation. This determines the effect of loneliness on a person. For instance, if alone time is considered negative, individuals may become prisoners of their feelings of loneliness. On the other hand, if alone time is perceived as positive and beneficial, it will affect a person differently.
Giving a different meaning or interpretation of the various risk factors and the possible effects of disability can serve as a protective factor against loneliness and social isolation.
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