I know I’m not the only one who has felt this way before, but there are a few cues that will tip you off to the fact that you’re feeling incredibly alone.
While we all feel lonely from time to time, it’s important not to let these feelings take over our lives and consume us — it can be a major detriment to our mental health.
So now, based on my opinion, I’m going to share with you what loneliness means, and here are some signs of how your isolation is affecting you.
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1. You’re Pessimistic About the Future
We all have those moments where we feel like life isn’t turning out the way we want it to. This happens to me most whenever I feel lonely.
You might find yourself overly negative about the future — this is completely normal.
Based on my opinion, when we feel lonely, we can become desperate for company, which can make us fear that our situation isn’t going to improve.
So we begin to feel hopeless about our future and the overall direction of our lives.
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2. You Feel Disconnected From Others
Feeling alone and disconnected are two major components of feeling isolated.
So if you’re still feeling this way after spending time with your friends and family, it’s likely that something else is going on.
The bottom line is that when you don’t feel loved or accepted by others, it’s hard to feel connected to them, even if they’re physically standing right in front of you.
Being connected to others means having an unconditional acceptance from them — no matter what your flaws are or what you do for a living.
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3. You Feel Depressed
Another indicator of loneliness is feeling depressed; after all, the two go hand in hand.
We may be made to feel lonely by contributing factors in our lives such as depression and illness, and this can lead us down a spiral into despair.
The good news is that when you feel depressed, it’s an easy indicator of your isolation as well.
If you’re feeling this, try to step back and evaluate whether or not your negative feelings are stemming from these contributing factors mentioned above.
It’s important to get help if they are.
However, the bottom line is that there’s no way around it — based on my experience, whenever I’m lonely, I feel depressed as well. And this can make life seem unbearable.
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4. You’re Anxious
When you’re feeling lonely, your stress levels tend to rise — and this has been shown to cause excessive worry and anxiety.
Anxiety is a tough emotion to deal with — it can make you feel incredibly overwhelmed, even in the simplest of situations.
If you’re feeling stressed out but still have plenty of those people around you that supposedly pull you out of the pit, then take a step back and look at your thought process for a moment.
You might be telling yourself that you have people around you who love and care for you, but your mind won’t accept it, because this happens to me several times.
This is a huge blow to your self-esteem.
So if this seems to be the case, try to tell yourself the truth — maybe you are feeling incredibly alone. It’s important to face these emotions head-on, even if they seem painful at first.
And maybe with time, your anxiety will subside.
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5. You’re On The Defensive
When you’re feeling lonely, your stress levels tend to rise — and this has been shown to cause excessive worry and anxiety.
Anxiety is a tough emotion to deal with — it can make you feel incredibly overwhelmed, even in the simplest of situations.
If you’re feeling stressed out but still have plenty of those people around you that supposedly pull you out of the pit, then take a step back and look at your thought process for a moment.
You might be telling yourself that you have people around you who love and care for you, but your mind won’t accept it, because this happens to me several times.
This is a huge blow to your self-esteem.
So if this seems to be the case, try to tell yourself the truth — maybe you are feeling incredibly alone. It’s important to face these emotions head-on, even if they seem painful at first.
And maybe with time, your anxiety will subside.
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6. You Feel Like Things Will Never Change
The real source of my anxiety and depression was most likely my isolation, and I had felt this several times.
So if you feel like things will never get better, you’re right — because you aren’t allowing yourself to.
If you’re feeling incredibly alone, try to be patient with yourself and wait it out — it can take time to feel comfortable around others again.
But the bottom line is that the second you do, it will begin to feel better — even if it feels completely overwhelming at first.
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7. You’re Depressed About Your Close Relationship With Yourself
If you’re feeling extremely alone but you still have your friends and family to fall back on, it’s easy to get depressed about yourself as well.
You might find yourself comparing yourself to others and wondering what they have that you don’t.
The bottom line is that if you’re feeling isolated, it’s hard to feel happy about anything in your life.
And no matter how much you want it to, being happy when you’re feeling alone can be incredibly difficult.
But the good news is that this is a temporary side effect of feeling lonely and isolated — not something you’ll always have to deal with.
So, even though it might seem like things will never change, they will. They always do.
Well, this is a blog post based on opinion, not a piece of professional advice.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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You may also like these posts on The Good Men Project:
White Fragility: Talking to White People About Racism | Escape the “Act Like a Man” Box | The Lack of Gentle Platonic Touch in Men’s Lives is a Killer | What We Talk About When We Talk About Men |
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Photo credit: Soragrit Wangsa on Unsplash