Loneliness and Physical Health

In our individualistic and high pressure society, it isn’t surprising that we have such a large prevalence of mental health issues and feelings of loneliness. Loneliness can be attributed to poor social skills which are indicated through four factors highlighted in this article which include: self-disclosure, relationship initiation, ability to support others emotionally and negative assertion skills. Poor social skills have been known to affect loneliness and mental health but there is also data suggesting that it negatively impacts physical health as well.

From an evolutionary standpoint, loneliness has been proposed as an indicator of homeostatic imbalance similar to hunger, thirst, or pain which are meant to induce behavioral changes. These poor social connections alert the individual to be on guard. In earlier times during the evolution of humans, this would have predisposed the socially isolated individual to increased predation/attack. As a result, it makes sense that functions such as sleep would be altered (need to stay on guard since there aren’t adequate social connections to share protective responsibility) as well as lowering the threshold for the stress response due to an increased need to self-protect. However, our modern day society appears to have more nonessential stresses than the acute existential stressors experienced by early Homo sapiens to which the loneliness trait adapted to. This trait-environment mismatch gives rise to many health consequences as a result of chronic loneliness such as increased risk for diabetes, obesity and CVD.

An estimated 15-30% of individuals suffer from chronic loneliness according to this article. A possible treatment method would be to work with these individuals through behavior therapy and to help improve their social connections. However, the cyclic nature of loneliness may benefit through treatment of the symptom (the feeling of loneliness itself) while simultaneously attacking the root of the issue (weak social connections). One such idea for symptom relief was highlighted in Psychology Today discussing the medical actions used to repress emotional pain such as acetaminophen and marijuana. Both have been demonstrated to abrogate emotional pain through induction of the same cannabinoid receptor. The article found that marijuana was able to decrease depressive episodes in lonely individuals but it wasn’t a cure due to its lethargic properties that decrease the motivation to make new social connections. While marijuana has been found to limit some of the effects of loneliness, it’s impact is in treating the symptoms and so as long as it’s properly paired with some sort of behaviorally therapy, it has the possibility of being an acceptable component to the treatment regime.

Being established as a detriment in our current social structure due to trait-environment mismatch, loneliness may also have the potential to be mitigated through social restructuring and education. There are many potential social aspects to target, however, one of particular interest in modern times is technology, particularly cell-phone use, and its ability to impede the development of social skills. The issue then becomes how to implement the solution in a way that is conducive to our society. Addressing human health involves looking at the whole person and the linkage between social networks and health highlighted through the example chronic loneliness further supports the importance for medical practitioners to take interest in factors outside of the immediate physical manifestations.