All by myself

"I feel I am turning into Emily Bronte/my lonely life around me like a moor," writes Anne Carson. "Funny how hard it is to be alone", ponders Philip Larkin. "I wandered lonely as a cloud", announces William Wordsworth in one of the most famous poems of all time.

Loneliness can feel like a universal, and ubiquitous, emotion. Almost 50% of adults report feeling lonely at least some of the time in the UK, with 3.3 million describing themselves as "chronically lonely".

But loneliness is far from just an individual feeling. Some have even called it the "leprosyA chronic bacterial disease. Once known pejoratively as lepers, sufferers were historically forced to live in colonies, isolated from others. of the 21st Century" - a huge and costly public health crisis which we have made little progress in curing.

Researchers have found links between loneliness and premature death from a range of causes, including Alzheimer's disease, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, high blood pressure and poor mental health. Some have even estimated that it is equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes per day - and it is thought to be more dangerous than obesityThe medical condition of being very overweight. There are many ways of measuring this, including a BMI of 30 or more. (You can work out your BMI by dividing your weight in kilograms by your height in metres squared.).

A survey in the US concluded that long-term social isolation could increase the risk of premature death by 32%. At the same time, researchers are finding that rates of loneliness are escalating rapidly, and that for the first time loneliness among young adults is surpassing that of the elderly and retired.

The problem is thought to be particularly pronounced among men. Data collected in 1995 showed just 3% of American men reporting that they had no close friends; by 2021, this figure had skyrocketed to 15%.

And, like any epidemic, isolation comes at a huge economic cost: an estimated £2.5 billion in the UK, which has been described as "the loneliness capital of Europe". Poor mental and physical health as well as low productivity resulting from loneliness amount to a loss of work worth £10,000 per capitaPer person. The phrase came into use in the late 17th Century, but it is originally a Latin phrase meaning "by heads". annually.

So why is such a debilitating response to feeling alone built into our bodies? Neuroscientists think that it is evolutionary. Primates, and therefore our ancestors from 52 million years ago, need to belong to a social group in order to survive. Becoming separated from others triggers a fight-or-flight response, a sense of dread, vulnerability and anxiety.

But many social and cultural historians believe that the feeling of loneliness is a uniquely modern phenomenon. They note that the words "lonely" and "loneliness" were hardly used before around 1800, and though many pursued hermiticRelating to a hermit, someone who has chosen to live a life away from other people. and introverted lifestyles, this was rarely associated with negative feelings of lonesomeness.

Some suggest that the loneliness epidemicA widespread disease or infection. has been driven by factors like urbanisationThe increase in the proportion of people living in towns and cities. It is predicted that by 2050 three billion people will live in cities., declining birth rates, changing family structures, a rising divorce rate, the coronavirus pandemic, the gig economyA way of working based on temporary jobs or casual part-time work rather than permanent jobs. , new technologies and an increasing number of single-person households.¹

Others point the finger at capitalismA form of economy characterised by private property and competition between companies., suggesting that its philosophies of individualism and privacy have sown widespread loneliness, encouraging us to abandon old models of communal living and working in favour of a segregated existence.

Yes: There is only one real answer to loneliness: learning to find joy in the company of others again. We should seek out opportunities not only to be with our existing friends, but also to make new ones.

No: Loneliness is clearly not just about how many friends you have, or how much time you spend socialising. It is driven by the society we live in.

Or... Individual solutions will not solve the problem. Psychologists report that lonely people are less likely to seek out the company of others. We need systemic change and to treat loneliness as the public health issue it is.