Humans have been long identified as social animals. Either we like it or not, we have some form of communication with people around us every day, and that is inescapable. But if we look at the picture in more depth, we will notice that we are more alone than any other creature on earth. Our thoughts, desires, and responsibilities are one-on-one with them. That loneliness causes lots of anxiety. Just as Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard said, “Fear and trembling are the dizziness of freedom.” Confronting your freedom, which is an individual journey, can sometimes be challenging. If we look through the history of evolution, in order to overcome these barriers, one must seek interconnectedness with human beings.
It is a privilege when you are surrounded by like-minded people who are there for you no matter what. However, even then, you can feel lonely. Loneliness is a state of mind; it’s a feeling of separation from other individuals. Many psychologists have postulated the consequences of loneliness and how it can lead to depression. Philip Hyland I conducted a study at Trinity College Dublin. He studied 1,839 US adults, ages 18 and 70, who had experienced at least one trauma throughout their lives. Most of the participants weren’t living alone. According to the questions asked about emotional loneliness, social loneliness, and past traumas, he came up with four classes of loneliness.
“Low loneliness,” “social loneliness,” “emotional loneliness,””and “ social and emotional loneliness.”.
“Low loneliness” had low scores and the least impact on people. “Social Loneliness” refers to people who are concentrated on the quantity of their social relationships. People with “emotional loneliness” were focused on the quality of their relationships. For “social and emotional loneliness,” people concentrated on both the quality and quantity of relationships, and mental health played a huge role in determining the levels. Therefore, past traumatic events can have an influence on shaping our everyday lives, including our communities.
Frédérique Vallières, along with his colleagues, conducted a study that aimed to find connections between Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy and the state of loneliness. Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) has been introduced by Albert Ellis and works to identify and replace self-defeating and negative thoughts with healthier ones. The researchers assessed participants’ cognition beliefs such as self-acceptance, preference, self-downing, catastrophizing, and demandingness. They deduced that preference beliefs had an impact on self-acceptance, just as demandingness had an impact an impact on self-downing; these all influenced loneliness in individuals. They hypothesised that dysfunctional cognitions could be the explanation for loneliness.
The study showed that REBT models explained the variance in loneliness. Therefore, interventions should be taken that target cognitive processes and REBT principles.
Even though this study might need further development, as many functional cognitions, ones with realistic evaluation and rational thought, could have consequences of loneliness, It still provided an important perspective on loneliness and identified potential ways it can be treated.
Loneliness has become a prevalent disease. People try to escape it until they find out that it’s too late and that it has turned into their comfort zone. However, if a person seeks out the help needed and fights to overcome loneliness, they will eventually be freed. There are many professionals observing the nature of loneliness, and they have come up with ways of tackling it, so what’s crucial is desire, and everything will settle down by pursuing it.
Written By:
Hyland, P., McGinty, G., Karatzias, T., Murphy, J., Vallières, F., & Power, J. M. (2018). Can the REBT theory explain loneliness? Theoretical and clinical applications. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 48(1), 39–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/16506073.2018.1475505
Hyland, P., Shevlin, M., Cloitre, M., Karatzias, T., Vallières, F., McGinty, G., Fox, R., & Power, J. M. (2018). Quality not quantity: loneliness subtypes, psychological trauma, and mental health in the US adult population. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 54(9), 1089–1099. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-018-1597-8
