Have you ever felt like you were all alone in the world? You aren’t alone, in fact, there are many people like you who feel like they are all by themselves. CBS reported that in a 2016 survey of over 2,000 participants about 72% of them felt lonely (look at https://www.cbsnews.com/news/many-americans-are-lonely-survey-finds/ for full article).
There are times when people wonder why should I feel lonely? I have plenty of friends and activities to keep me involved. Because you are involved does not mean that you aren’t allowed to be alone. I am in a handful of clubs and activities and there are times where I feel all alone in the world even though I have plenty of people around me. Feeling alone is sometimes hard to explain to people because they assume that when you feel alone it means that you are depressed, but that is not necessarily true. Feeling alone is different to a lot of people and it goes into a lot of different categories. It could be because you are the only person who likes something, you are in a new place and don’t know a soul, or you feel left out from being a part of something, and there are many more situations that go into this feeling.
When I feel alone it is because most of the time I feel like people are ignoring me and I get into my own head because of that. There are other times when I am in a large social setting that I need to leave to take a breath because I get overwhelmed with the feeling that no one wants me to be there or that it doesn’t matter if I left and went home for the night. The people in these situations aren’t doing anything wrong and aren’t purposefully making me feel this way, most of them don’t even know. When someone feels lonely, it is most likely because of the way they perceive the situation which leads them to feel lonely.
One of the best things to do is to let someone know that you are feeling lonely. Most of the time, it is hard to tell if someone is feeling lonely because it is more often beneath the surface where no one can see your deepest feelings. The people you tell of feeling alone can have a variety of reactions, including trying to “fix” feeling lonely. Feeling alone is something that cannot be “fixed”, but it can be helped. When you let someone know that you are feeling alone, try to also explain why you are feeling alone at that moment. More often than not they will try to help soften the feeling of loneliness.
Just know, you are not alone in feeling alone. There are others who feel the same and it is okay. When I have my moments, I take a deep breath and reach out. Most of the time when you let your feelings out and tell someone they will be there to support you, as well as help you feel less alone.