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FAQ for media

How does loneliness affect people’s mental health?

The evidence suggests that feeling lonely is linked to experiences of mental ill-health (such as anxiety and depression) later on, and this has been found for both young people and older adults. People who experience mental ill-health are also tend to be more lonely than those who don’t, so it runs both ways.

What are the dangers of prolonged feelings of loneliness?

Most people feel lonely at some point in their lives, often around transitions such as moving to a new place, starting a new job, going to university, becoming a parent, or bereavement. Loneliness is part of being human, and is a signal that someone needs to (re)connect with others. The issue is when loneliness becomes prolonged, when it can feel like the person is trapped in feeling disconnected. This is when issues with physical and mental ill-health might start becoming apparent.

How does loneliness affect different age groups?

It’s generally been found that loneliness is highest amongst young people and older adults, creating a U-shaped distribution over the life-course. Historically, loneliness research focused on older people, but it’s become clear that young people are also more likely than other age-groups to feel lonely. This might be because they are going through so many transitions in terms of identity, social networks and circumstances. I found it interesting that in the BBC Loneliness Experiment they asked people of all ages when they had been the loneliest in their lives, and even older people said that it had been when they were young. Pam Qualter, who led that research, suggested that this might be because young people haven’t yet come up with strategies to address feelings to loneliness.

What can people do to tackle feelings of loneliness?

We asked this question to a group of people who experience mental ill-health as well as loneliness, and have co-produced a booklet of their suggestions alongside lived experience researchers: https://tinyurl.com/conversationsMHloneliness

Any advice for how others can support people experiencing feelings of loneliness?

See our Conversations booklet for ideas and also this briefing we contributed to, focusing on young people: https://emergingminds.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Co-RAY-Briefing-Loneliness-Isolation-Version-1.0.pdf

Do you have any statistics or reports about loneliness we can refer to?

Please see our Resources page: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/psychiatry/research/epidemiology-and-applied-clinical-research-department/loneliness-and-social-isolation-4. What Works Centre for Wellbeing has some good resources on loneliness too, as does the Campaign to End Loneliness.

You mention about loneliness and social isolation. How do they differ and how do they affect people differently?

Loneliness is when someone feels there’s a mismatch between the number and quality of relationships they have, and those they’d like to have. It’s a painful subjective experience. Social isolation, on the other hand, is when there’s an objective lack of relationship number or quality. You can be lonely because you’re isolated, but you can also be lonely in a crowd. You can also be alone and really enjoy the solitude. These distinctions are really important when thinking about how to address loneliness. For example, if someone is socially isolated, then joining a new group might help, but that wouldn’t necessary be a good solution for someone who continues to feel disconnected even if there are opportunities for them to interact socially.

Any additional comments?

There are different kinds of loneliness, which would again affect what might help. Emotional loneliness is when the mismatch it to do with an intimate relationship, for example as a result of a romantic relationship breakup. Social loneliness is when someone doesn’t feel part of a community, and existential loneliness is when someone doesn’t feel a sense of purpose, or doesn’t know where they fit in the world.

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