2) Loneliness….. The Danger Zone.

This month I've chosen to address the often hidden threat of loneliness and its effects.

It can strike whether you live alone or not.

But someone experiencing loneliness and living in a remote rural environment can feel its encroachment more than most.

Loneliness is an integral part of depression if it's not challenged.

An obvious trigger is losing a wife, husband, partner or significant other. But it can also arrive as an uninvited state of mind.

Our desire to share with others wanes as we decide no-one wants to hear us. We don't want to trouble them with our "stuff".

This reduces our opportunities for connection with others. 

So we go about life feeling that we are insignificant and almost invisible which in turn triggers feelings of ineptitude and harsh self judgement. We can spiral into a self destruct mode.

Our boundaries reduce making our world smaller with less opportunity for communication. 

It's the same punishing spiral that anxiety follows before introducing us to depression.

Sometimes we'll turn to the internet telling ourselves that this is keeping us attached to the outside world. But it's cyber conversation with "clickbait" and often on chosen topics that can be even more destructive as our mood sinks lower and darker.

However the internet can have a positive role to play. It can help us reach out at a time when we are closing down. Chat groups, wellbeing groups, information, news even humour and so much more can assist in lifting our mood and keeping us engaged with all around us.

But for reasons of age or lifestyle not everyone is comfortable using the internet. It's imperative that they recognise the signs of loneliness. And where it can take them. Like an addiction it can cause you to wallow in what you feel you've become.

So self awareness must be allowed to dictate at the very beginning that there is a need to reach out . To be active and to maintain positive links with other human beings.

Reach out by "making" yourself talk. To a doctor. A counsellor. A friend. Family. A group. Anyone. Be aware of the inherent need for a human to be in communication.

Just please never suffer alone. Loneliness is an illness.

Cheers

Peter Thompson 

Dip.Couns. MNCS (Acc.)

These articles are merely helpful snippets of information written for the West of the Clee magazine.. For more detail please check out 

www.nationalcounsellingsociety.org

www.counselling-directory.org.uk

Or contact me..

ptcounselling@yahoo.com

07936700238