Loneliness and COVID-19
Aug 12, 2021 21:36:19 GMT -5
Post by PurplePuppy on Aug 12, 2021 21:36:19 GMT -5
August 12, 2021
Loneliness and COVID-19
By Michael Curtis
The pandemic COVID-19 has affected our lives in many different ways. Social distancing, lockdowns, and physical isolation have highlighted the human need for intimate connection and good friends and the desire to be part of a shared community. Loneliness occurs when the connections we need are larger than the connections we have. The impact of COVID has drawn attention to the problem of loneliness, a phenomenon usually understated because it was associated with shame. Understandably, it was not often the subject of conversation. Loneliness is a subjective factor, indicating a feeling of lack of connection but it is different from aloneness or solitude, and also often hidden and not admitted even to family members. It can manifest itself in different ways.
Loneliness has also manifested itself historically. This is apparent from the Epic of Gilgamesh. The 4,000-year-old Sumerian epic is the tale of a hero who is arrogant, self-absorbed, and lonely, yearning for a true friend. “Part of me is missing, never before has loneliness oppressed me so, a friend is what I need to make these sorrows end.”
In modern terms those sorrows can be felt by everyone to some extent on a wide scale. That would include lack of companionship and meaningful relations, loss of a close relationship, a feeling of being left out or not being cared for, the lack of a social network , lack of authenticity in relationships, lack of a human touch, an act which slows down heartbeat and blood pressure and triggers the release of oxytocin, a hormone associated with empathy and relationship building, among other matters. That touch will be absent by the rules concerning COVID being made in the U.S. and elsewhere for maintaining social distancing and hugging.
Even before the arrival of COVID, the existence of loneliness was attracting attention because of its social, medical, and economic costs. Loneliness has always been familiar at the top, where individuals have few friends despite wealth and power. A rare notable exception was the relationship between President Harry Truman and his friend Eddie Jacobson, shirt maker in Kansas City: “in all my years in Washington, Eddie never asked me for anything for himself.”
Continued at link
Loneliness and COVID-19
By Michael Curtis
The pandemic COVID-19 has affected our lives in many different ways. Social distancing, lockdowns, and physical isolation have highlighted the human need for intimate connection and good friends and the desire to be part of a shared community. Loneliness occurs when the connections we need are larger than the connections we have. The impact of COVID has drawn attention to the problem of loneliness, a phenomenon usually understated because it was associated with shame. Understandably, it was not often the subject of conversation. Loneliness is a subjective factor, indicating a feeling of lack of connection but it is different from aloneness or solitude, and also often hidden and not admitted even to family members. It can manifest itself in different ways.
Loneliness has also manifested itself historically. This is apparent from the Epic of Gilgamesh. The 4,000-year-old Sumerian epic is the tale of a hero who is arrogant, self-absorbed, and lonely, yearning for a true friend. “Part of me is missing, never before has loneliness oppressed me so, a friend is what I need to make these sorrows end.”
In modern terms those sorrows can be felt by everyone to some extent on a wide scale. That would include lack of companionship and meaningful relations, loss of a close relationship, a feeling of being left out or not being cared for, the lack of a social network , lack of authenticity in relationships, lack of a human touch, an act which slows down heartbeat and blood pressure and triggers the release of oxytocin, a hormone associated with empathy and relationship building, among other matters. That touch will be absent by the rules concerning COVID being made in the U.S. and elsewhere for maintaining social distancing and hugging.
Even before the arrival of COVID, the existence of loneliness was attracting attention because of its social, medical, and economic costs. Loneliness has always been familiar at the top, where individuals have few friends despite wealth and power. A rare notable exception was the relationship between President Harry Truman and his friend Eddie Jacobson, shirt maker in Kansas City: “in all my years in Washington, Eddie never asked me for anything for himself.”
Continued at link