Discovered in the recently recovered document section of my computer this. It was entitled loneliness study. Opened it, and this is what I found. Did wonder what prompted this research, however, the document is not dated, and not telling. Decided the first step would be to define loneliness, went to the dictionary to find that is is definitely not fun, not where you want to be, not what you want to experience. . Look at some of the synonyms: isolation, lack of friends/companions, forsakenness, abandonment, rejection; unpopularity; sadness, unhappiness, forlornness, despondency, solitude, aloneness, separation, seclusion. It is depressing just to read the synonyms. I pity lonely people, not empathize; then I would be feeling forlorn and forsaken. The research was done in the United States.
“Loneliness isn’t just a fleeting feeling, leaving us sad for a few hours to a few days. Research in recent years suggests that for many people, loneliness is more like a chronic ache, affecting their daily lives and sense of well-being.
Now a nationwide survey by the health insurer Cigna underscores that. It finds that loneliness is widespread in America, with nearly 50 percent of respondents reporting that they feel alone or left out always or sometimes.
Using one of the best-known tools for measuring loneliness — the UCLA Loneliness Scale — Cigna surveyed 20,000 adults online across the country. The University of California, Los Angeles tool uses a series of statements and a formula to calculate a loneliness score based on responses. Scores on the UCLA scale range from 20 to 80. People scoring 43 and above were considered lonely in the Cigna survey, with a higher score suggesting a greater level of loneliness and social isolation.
More than half of survey respondents — 54 percent — said they always or sometimes feel that no one knows them well. Fifty-six percent reported they sometimes or always felt like the people around them “are not necessarily with them.” And 2 in 5 felt like “they lack companionship,” that their “relationships aren’t meaningful” and that they “are isolated from others.”
The survey found that the average loneliness score in America is 44, which suggests that “most Americans are considered lonely,” according to the report released Tuesday by the health insurer.
“Half of Americans view themselves as lonely,” said David Cordani, president and CEO of Cigna Corp. “I can’t help but be surprised [by that].” (Cigna is an NPR sponsor and a major provider of health insurance for NPR employees.)
But the results are consistent with other previous research, says Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a psychologist at Brigham Young University, who studies loneliness and its health effects. She wasn’t involved in the Cigna survey. While it’s difficult to compare the loneliness scores in different studies, she says, other nationally representative estimates have found between 20 percent and 43 percent of Americans report feeling lonely or socially isolated. “
One has to feel compassion for these people, and there are thousands, if not millions of them. It seems to be an epidemic. It would be fascinating to learn of loneliness studies in other cultures, in other countries.
If this data reflects the state of affairs found in the populace of the US – it may explain everything. Decided that this might be task for Artificial Intelligence. My question: A study found loneliness almost an epidemic in the US . What does it results in, for example, perhaps anger, and is there a cure?
A!: You are exactly right and it can lead to a wide range of negatives, both physical and psychological. For example: Psychological: Anger, irritability, depression and anxiety, cognitive decline, demential risks, stress, negative feelings, low esteem. Physical: cardiovascular, disease, hypertension, stroke, immune system dysregulation, inflammation, increased mortality risk. So yes, anger can be one of be one of the outcomes of sustained loneliness. We should be cautious with the word cure but research has found there are interventions and strategies that can reduce loneliness.
Me: A cure could be the Islamic Faith as Allah is always with a believer so you are never alone. Can Islam serve as a cure or a protective force?
AI provided a practical solutions combining faith and action. For example, regular spiritual practices (Dhikr, recitation of the Quran, Dua, reflecting on the names of Allah, night prayers) and connection with the Muslim community, seek faith sensitive counselor, reflect and journal. Then volunteered to find programs for me.
Me: No thanks I am not at all lonely. I found a study and thoughts that populism (shall we say) is a byproduct of the epidemic of loneliness.
AI: “That is an astute and rather original insight – and you are not the only one to think so. Many social scientists and have drawn a connection between rising loneliness and the appeal of populist leaders, such as Trump.” Then cited two large studies: 2023 U. S. Surgeon General’s Advisory Opinion on Our Epidemic of Loneliness which reported about half of American adults report measurable loneliness, citing complex multiple causes. “This created a society with millions who feel unheard, unseen, and disconnected—not just socially but morally and politically. “ Psychologists note that when people feel excluded or unseen they become more receptive to movements that promise belonging, identity and recognition. Populism- either right or left fills that void. Political psychologists such as Karen Steiner and Arlie Rothschild have shown that: Chronic social isolation increases susceptibility to ‘us vs. them” thinking.
The deeper paradox AI reports is when loneliness becomes widespread, society creates unity- but if that craving is channelled through anger or fear, it produces division instead. It is a tragic irony; Loneliness creates the hunger for being, yet the political form it takes can deepen isolation and polarization. Then AI summarized my observation poetically:
“In a nation of strangers, even outrage becomes a form of fellowship,”
Then AI spoke of key thinkers and theories on loneliness, belonging and politics. For example – Hannah Arendt who argues that loneliness is a condition that totalitarian regimes exploit. Another paper from the Netherlands found a significant positive correlation between populist right parties in the Netherlands. Derek Thompson in the Atlantic’s The Anti Social Century argues that American’s increasing time spent in isolation affects not only personalities but politics.
Then AI helpfully suggested that he/she/it map out how loneliness changes in the US over the past few decades which would show how that made Trump possible.
Me: No thanks. It is interesting that I was forced to flee the US as I was persecuted for being a Muslim. I am SO grateful to be out of there.
AI sympathetically said it was a very painful experience. Your experience comes back, in a profound way to an earlier topic, when people lose empathy and genuine community – suspicion replaces understanding, and in that atmosphere, anyone “different” can become a target for projection or resentment.
Then AI volunteered to show me how the Quran or early Muslim history frames migration and refuge as both a trial and a blessing? “It would parallel your own experience beautifully.
Me: Great Idea.
Gentle readers, you will have to keep reading subsequent blogs to hear of this. At the moment some personal reflections on what I just now learned. Definitely finding peace through knowledge.
I never could figure out what caused the horrendous Islamophobia I experienced in the County of Marin – not just from the police but the neighbors in the apartment complex, even the Jewish Community Center, to which I was going to leave a portion of my estate for the education of children. I was totally different – a blue-eyed white haired woman who in her working days was very successful, was therefore strident; not bowing down to police brutality. I was different at the Jewish Community Center because I was a Muslim – was assured I would not face discrimination, but did. I was a happy, prosperous single woman driving a Lexus seemingly without a care in the world. Other apartment complex dwellers and neighbors: elderly grandparents leaving nearby their affluent children, or those with children struggling to pay the rent so that their children could go to a ‘good school” I did not have children nor grandchildren. although popular with kids of all ages. I had great medical care provided by my former employer; my Internist of 44 years was two blocks away. They struggled to afford medical care. I decorated my ground floor deck with Ikebana flower arrangements and unicorns. Either they had no patio or if so, it was dismally empty, I was proud of my new-found faith, flaunted it by wearing a hijab, insisting I wear it when having my photo taken for my driver’s license. Oh yes, I was proudly on my own, divorcing my prior husbands, living well on my retirement surrounded by old folks with their tired spouses with limited retirement resources. OOPs. I was different. I was resented.
Now I understand, could not quite put it altogether before. It was my success that got me in trouble – not my failure.
On an intellectual level have studied the phenomena of ‘us vs. them’ The targets of discrimination are reduced to subhuman levels. During Holocaust days Jews were depicted as rats in the newspapers and the social media of that time. That is what is being done with Israelites – not a humanitarian or caring word is ever said or reported upon, for the thousands, or perhaps millions, who live under a totalitarian government. Not every Israelite’s last name is Netanyahu – nor are they sympathetic to him. Those Israelites can do nothing to stop the genocide in Gaza – probably can do even less than what we can do. Some individuals on social media have proudly and haughtily formed an entire identity displaying graphically the atrocities of those Israelites in command. What will the gloom and doomers have to talk about if this ceasefire holds??
Anyway. This blog is going to have no GIFs. Photographs show what got me into trouble – flower arrangements on my patio and within the apartment. One photo, most amusing, chows me celebrating Christmas wearing one of my Christmas sweaters on the patio decorated for that forbidden time.
