Loneliness - The Silent Killer

The silent killer.

- Santosh Pattnaik

Norman Cousins, author of the best-selling book Anatomy of an Illness, once said, “The eternal quest of the individual human being is to shatter his loneliness.” An article in Harvard Business Review by former Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy describes an epidemic of pervasive and destructive loneliness. He writes: “During my years caring for patients, the most common pathology I saw was not heart disease or diabetes; it was loneliness.” While common definitions of loneliness describe it as a state of solitude or being alone, loneliness is actually a state of mind which, causes people to feel empty, alone, and unwanted. Loneliness is a terrible feeling. It is that heartwrenching feeling you feel, when you have nowhere to go, no one to talk to and no one to share your thoughts with.

It’s a feeling when you are standing in the midst of a huge crowd, yet your heart is aching because you feel completely isolated. Albert Schweitzer aptly describes this helpless state of mind: “We are all so much together but we are all dying of loneliness.” People who are lonely often crave human contact, but their state of mind makes it more difficult to form connections with other people. In fact, loneliness is an invisible epidemic that affects millions of people around the world. It’s a common yet unpleasant, unique and complex emotion for human beings of all ages.