The Republicans’ controversial effort to repeal the perhaps optimistically named Affordable Care Act because of rising premiums may be fatally stalled. But there are other ways to rein in health care costs that have been almost entirely overlooked. Making a serious effort to reduce loneliness could make a real difference.
Lonely people put heavy demands on our health care system. Loneliness impairs immune response and makes people more likely to develop serious medical problems like heart disease and stroke.
According to one meta-analysis, loneliness increases the risk of early death as much as smoking or being 100 pounds overweight. The risk is highest in people younger than 65. But lonely people don’t go to doctors just for medical care. They’re also dying for social contact.
Although loneliness is now recognized as a major public health problem, there hasn’t been much discussion about how to address it.
As a clinician who treats mental health issues caused by loneliness, I’ve come to believe that we can’t develop effective interventions for loneliness without first understanding what causes it.
More Than Social Isolation
Although isolation is an important risk factor, having company doesn’t always prevent loneliness—and being alone doesn’t always cause it.
Someone in a bad marriage may feel lonely in the presence of a distant or rejecting spouse, for example. Loneliness is the experience of being not alone, but without the other in a way that feels meaningful. What matters is the internal experience.
Some people are content on their own. As the British psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott explained, people like this never actually feel alone internally.
