Loneliness can kill
Loneliness can increase the risk of heart disease by 29% and stroke by 32%, significant figures that should not be overlooked. We will talk about how loneliness affects your brain and body. The problem with loneliness is that it is quite complicated. When you lack meaningful social connections, your body is aware that you are alone, so it begins to increase your stress response. Your sympathetic nervous system starts to go on high alert, so it's natural for you to feel more paranoid. He isit's natural not to trust people and not feel open to connecting with others, and it decreases some parts of the brain where you feel love, connection, relationship. So you enter this vicious circle, and this is what scientists call the paradox of loneliness, because loneliness makes you withdraw into yourself and prevents you from looking for that meaningful interaction that solves this feeling. There is a chain reaction that occurs with the hormones in your body. First thingis that your cortisol levels are completely disrupted. This is what I drink when I drink coffee. It's also what wakes you up in the morning. It's such an exciting feeling. But it is also what brings you to a level where you are stressed. Your dopamine increases. It's a hormone that feels good, but actually pushes you to seek quick rewards, like drinking, gambling, going out without thinking about the consequences for yourself. You may also see a decrease in serotonin, oxytocin and your natural opioid.levels. When you chat with a friend or eat a simply delicious meal, you feel these natural increases of substances that will be natural pain relievers. All these substances decrease when we feel lonely. You will begin to see this impact on your physical health. So the short-term effects increase, anxiety increases, stress increases, so you can withdraw into yourself, generally feel more tired, generally feel less like going out, and also feel this increased anxiety and paranoia. In a bodyThe only long-term effects are that you are more likely to get sick more often. You are more likely to be susceptible to the flu, to COVID, to a mild cough that happens in your office. This is also related to the pain in your body, ie. chronic pain, back pain, or just a general feeling of exhaustion most of the time. Your sleep quality is not very good, so you can sleep exactly the same number of hours, but you wake up quite tired, feeling a bit groggy. Loneliness affects your memory. This can leaduntil cognitive decline. It can be a precursor to dementia. Increased inflammation caused by loneliness or, frankly, anything directly affects the heart, and heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Loneliness can also affect your life expectancy. It can increase the risk of premature death to a degree comparable to that of smoking, which is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States and worldwide. It is hard to believe, but there is a very strong forceevidence suggesting that simply connecting with people, even if it's just one piece of the puzzle, will take at least a small step to help you feel better physically and emotionally. Many studies show that hearing the voice of someone you care about has a direct effect on your brain and your brain. the nervous system. But there are other things, like art for example. Art therapy has taken off in recent years and has even become an integral part of some rehabilitation centers.art therapy. Many researches have shown that just observing nature is very good for your health. So go out, talk to people, pick up the phone, exercise, talk to strangers. After all, what you're really looking for is to discover what makes you happy. You don't want to be around people or participate in a social life just to be there. What you're looking for is to connect with people on a level that really, really deeply touches you and can affect you.
