Even Keel Bipolar Disorder Support Association

[jenndun]

Feeling a connection to others is a critical component of a personal mental and physical health.

New studies show that a sense of rejection or isolation disrupts not only will power and perseverance, but also key cellular processes deep within the human body.

Chronic loneliness belongs among health risk factors such as smoking, obesity or lack of exercise.

Feeling connected to others is vital to a personâl mental well-being, as well as physical health, research at the University of Chicago shows.

The studies, reported in a new book, Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection, show that a sense of rejection or isolation disrupts not only abilities, will power and perseverance, but also key cellular processes deep within the human body.

The findings suggest that chronic loneliness belongs among health risk factors such as smoking, obesity or lack of exercise, according to lead author John Cacioppo, the Tiffany & Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor in Psychology at the University.

Loneliness not only alters behavior, but loneliness is related to greater resistance to blood flow through your cardiovascular system, Cacioppo said.

Loneliness leads to higher rises in morning levels of the stress hormone cortisol, altered gene expression in immune cells, poorer immune function, higher blood pressure and an increased level of depression.

Loneliness also is related to difficulty getting a deep sleep and a faster progression of Alzheimers disease, said Cacioppo.

One of the founders of a new discipline called social neuroscience, Cacioppo used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) brain scans and advanced scientific techniques to document the roles of loneliness and social connection as central regulatory mechanisms in human physiology and behavior.

The authors traced the need for connection to its evolutionary roots. In order to survive, humans needed to bond to rear their children. In order to flourish, they needed to extend their altruistic and cooperative impulses beyond narrow self-interest and immediate kin. But in the environment of evolutionary adaptation, the only real safety was in numbers.

Just as physical pain is a prompt to change behavior (such as moving a finger away from the fire), loneliness evolved as a prompt to action, signaling an ancestral need to repair the social bonds. Feelings of loneliness take a variety of forms, Cacioppo said.

There are three core dimensions to feeling lonely”intimate isolation, which comes from not having anyone in your life you feel affirms who you are; relational isolation, which comes from not having face-to-face contacts that are rewarding; and collective isolation, which comes from not feeling that you're part of a group or collective beyond individual existence, he said.

It is not solitude or physical isolation itself, but rather the subjective sense of isolation that Cacioppoâs work shows to be so profoundly disruptive. Yet, outward circumstances such as moving to a new community or losing an intimate partner can trigger loneliness. And as the authors make clear, today's culture is not always conducive to promoting strong social bonds.

The problem of social isolation will likely grow as conventional societal structures fade. The average household size is decreasing, and by 2010, 31 million Americans roughly 10 percent of the population will live alone. Sociologists also have found that people report significantly fewer close friends and confidants than those a generation ago.

Cacioppo and Patrick also demonstrate how loneliness creates a feedback loop that reinforces social anxiety, fear and other negative feelings. By learning more about what underlies this experience, then learning to reframe their response, lonely individuals can reverse the feedback loop, overcome fear and find ways to reconnect.

We try to offer some help for those who have become stuck, said Patrick. The process begins in rediscovering those positive, physiological sensations that come during the simplest moments of human contact. But that means overcoming the fear and reaching out.

Lonely people feel a hunger, Cacioppo added. The key is to realize that the solution lies not in being fed, but in cooking for and enjoying a meal with others.

By Rick Nauert, Ph.D.
Psych Central

[RollercoasterMom]

I moved to Tassie 6 years ago from Canada. I pine for my home community on the East Coast of Canada. No one, no one, understands the heartache I feel for home.

[Uniden]

Without undermining how you are feeling. To think you are alone and no one understands in being homesick is really negative thinking. Many people have moved from their home towns/ different countries some have moved to totally different cultures.

Because you’re new I will ask how’s/ what’s your support at the moment?
_________________
I like mornings... I just wish they where later in the day!

[RollercoasterMom]

Yes... support. non-judgemental. Excuse me but how the heck (and I don't mean heck) would you know what it's like to immigrate? You know nothing... of course I'm being negative... I have Bipolar 2 and am working hard with my doc and psych to balance meds/attitude/and thought patterns. Your comments sounded just like the kind people make when you explain depression to them and they try to relate feeling sad over their hamster dying with the socially-excluding, mental exhaustion, irritability, self-deprecating, self-loathing symptoms of the disease. No matter. I wont' turn this into a flame war. Forget I mentioned it. Forget I reached out. What are my support networks like? Why do you think I joined a support group>???? My mistake.

[jenndun]

I have a similiar story as Uniden to tell - don't feel I fit anywhere. So what if you've immigrated from another country ? I'm sure if that was the problem you would have packed your bags and headed back to wherever you call home.
As for us sounding like a textbook. We ARE living textbooks. We are telling you what has worked for us in our experience. The problem is there are different solutions for different people and it is only with experience that you can say this or that is rubbish or doesn't work for you. Even if you feel that no one understands how you feel, and probably no one does completely, don't give up!!
It takes time to change unhelpful ways of viewing things and developing healthier ones. I used to think no one knows how much I suffer, they can't brainwash me, I refuse to believe this or that etc Poor, poor me!! Now I won't tell you to 'stop being negative' or to 'think positive' - people who do that should be tortured in my opinion! Seriously, I remember feeling as if my feelings/views were being depreciated or I was being told to shut up. Just keep challenging your thoughts and try to figure out why you are feeling the way you are - make your own "positive" reality - what is helpful and real to you. A good psychologist will help you do this but it takes time and doesn't guarantee you won't feel miserable or overwhelmed or just plain yuk at times but it will lessen it and help you bounce back more quickly.

Ps; if you go back to Canada can I come too? I am sure no one will miss me here...

[Polaris]

I dont think I like people very much! I'd much prefer to be at home being a hermit!

[jenndun]

Neither do I. I prefer the company of my dogs and rarely feel lonely. However there are times when having a friend or two can be very useful, if nothing else but to bounce ideas off or give you a helping hand occassionally.

[Walter]

I can certainly empathise with the hermit approach as given a chance I can work for months on something and rarely come out. But it only lasts so long before the urge to talk to someone sneaks up on me.

We are basically social animals and will go to great lengths to try talking to other when the isolation begins to get painful.