Biological impacts of lonelinessPsychological impacts of loneliness Loneliness physically affects people, often Loneliness resulted in low confidence and in ways that make it harder to fulfil everyday negative emotions, thoughts, and beliefs – and routines, and harder to engage with others. at worst, triggered thoughts of self-harm and Participants described feeling tired and generally suicide. Participants described feeling ‘alone’, more poorly, with some people feeling new health ‘trapped’, ‘without purpose’, ‘angry’, and problems they had never experienced before, ‘frustrated’, demonstrating the powerful negative and existing health symptoms often worsening. effect loneliness has on an individual’s mental Physical impacts were closely linked to the well-being. The experience of acute or sustained serious psychological impacts of loneliness: low loneliness was so terrible for them that self-harm energy; feeling stressed and anxious more often; and suicidal thoughts were reported by seven and mental health problems developing or getting participants through the research. worse. At times participants found it difficult to “You feel like you’re in a black pit and there’s assign causation – were they more tired because no light and you’re struggling. You want to they felt lonely, or were they finding it hard to get out but you can’t get out.” connect because of how tired they were? Others (Health, Female, London, 18-34) noted that they saw clear causal patterns to their energy levels – when they stopped engaging and Depression develops or worsens, and felt lonelier, they began to feel less energised and participants began to self-criticise. Sustained well overall. loneliness weakens the ability of people to cope “My energy levels are low, I feel tired and with their circumstances. a loss in conidence to go out and meet “Isolation is depressing, so you go into new people.” depression. I’ve had mornings where I’m so depressed I’ve gone back to bed and (Mobility, Female, Bristol, 55-74)I’ve said when I wake up it will be diferent.” Some participants, particularly the chronically (Mobility, Female, London, 35-54) lonely, described their experience of loneliness as resulting in what is known as hypervigilance Feeling like this encourages disconnection in social situations in the mental health space. from others, encouraging those experiencing They felt ‘especially anxious’ and ‘out of practice’ loneliness to shut themselves away from in social situations, which led to them feeling encounters with other people. Adding to the ‘over-sensitive’ to how others were viewing difficulty, loneliness prevents some people from them and made even simple interactions more planning for the future, instead leaving them overwhelming. Participants felt stuck in a negative unable to see the potential ahead and thinking feedback loop – it was too hard to engage with ‘what’s the point?’ and ‘what good am I?’ other people, which meant that they withdrew from social environments, which in turn made them feel even more isolated and ‘out of practice’ for the future. Every retreat meant that the stakes were raised for future interactions. What does it feel like to be lonely? I can tell you exactly, it’s like being in a bubble and you want to get out but you just can't, you try and you can’t do it, you just can’t get out. (Health issues, Male, Wales, 55-74) What is it like to be lonely in the UK? 32