New Cigna Study Reveals Loneliness at Epidemic Levels in America

[Hanarchy Montanarchy]

Loneliness ain't exactly a new phenomenon. I'm pretty sure the Greatest Generation had their share of it.



Of course, it also predates the internet and multiculturalism.

[Kath]

What science, though? We meet new people just walking around the neighborhood after dinner. Lonely is a choice.

Then you don't understand what loneliness is. Someone can still be lonely in a crowded room. Not everyone is wired to just start talking to strangers walking by.

Nah people are lonely because they aren’t talking to people. Just like the depressed are sad because they don’t smile enough.

If only people could see the simple solutions to their issues.

That's me - simple solution, one-directional thinking Kath. I can't ever see an issue from more than one-side. That's what everyone says.

Jeez, do you people even TRY to understand the person you are responding to? I'm bi-polar, partially agoraphobic with serious anxiety and nervous disorders, the kid is Aspie and Nerd struggles with depression.

When, exactly, did loneliness become a mental disorder/chemical imbalance?

[jediuser598]

One would think older generations would get tired of shitting on us, you're the ones who offered the participation trophies and then made us into villains for getting them.

Who's complaining about millennials?

“We’re just making the world aware of how loooooooonely we are!!!”
-Generation Whine

Wonder who he's talking about there.

Baby Boomers? Gen X? Or the usual target, Millennials?

[jediuser598]

Loneliness ain't exactly a new phenomenon. I'm pretty sure the Greatest Generation had their share of it.



Of course, it also predates the internet and multiculturalism.

Lol, was on my phone and couldn't link it, was going exactly for that video.

[jediuser598]

[nmoore63]

One would think older generations would get tired of shitting on us, you're the ones who offered the participation trophies and then made us into villains for getting them.

Who's complaining about millennials?

“We’re just making the world aware of how loooooooonely we are!!!”
-Generation Whine

Wonder who he's talking about there.

Baby Boomers? Gen X? Or the usual target, Millennials?

Stop whining.

[jediuser598]

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place (1933) / Ernest Hemingway
It was very late and everyone had left the café except an old man who sat in
the shadow the leaves of the tree made against the electric light. In the day time
the street was dusty, but at night the dew settled the dust and the old man liked
to sit late because he was deaf and now at night it was quiet and he felt the
difference. The two waiters inside the café knew that the old man was a little
drunk, and while he was a good client they knew that if he became too drunk he
would leave without paying, so they kept watch on him.
"Last week he tried to commit suicide," one waiter said.
"Why?"
"He was in despair."
"What about?"
"Nothing."
"How do you know it was nothing?"
"He has plenty of money."
They sat together at a table that was close against the wall near the door of
the café and looked at the terrace where the tables were all empty except where
the old man sat in the shadow of the leaves of the tree that moved slightly in the
wind. A girl and a soldier went by in the street. The street light shone on the
brass number on his collar. The girl wore no head covering and hurried beside
him.
"The guard will pick him up," one waiter said.
"What does it matter if he gets what he's after?"
"He had better get off the street now. The guard will get him. They went by
five minutes ago."
The old man sitting in the shadow rapped on his saucer with his glass. The
younger waiter went over to him.
"What do you want?"
The old man looked at him. "Another brandy," he said.
"You'll be drunk," the waiter said. The old man looked at him. The waiter
went away.
"He'll stay all night," he said to his colleague. "I'm sleepy now. I never get
into bed before three o'clock. He should have killed himself last week."
The waiter took the brandy bottle and another saucer from the counter
inside the café and marched out to the old man's table. He put down the saucer
and poured the glass full of brandy.
"You should have killed yourself last week," he said to the deaf man. The
old man motioned with his finger. "A little more," he said. The waiter poured on
into the glass so that the brandy slopped over and ran down the stem into the
top saucer of the pile. "Thank you," the old man said. The waiter took the bottle
back inside the café. He sat down at the table with his colleague again.
"He's drunk now," he said.
"He's drunk every night."
"What did he want to kill himself for?"
"How should I know."
"How did he do it?"
"He hung himself with a rope."
"Who cut him down?"
"His niece."
"Why did they do it?"
"Fear for his soul."
2
"How much money has he got?"
"He's got plenty."
"He must be eighty years old."
"Anyway I should say he was eighty."
"I wish he would go home. I never get to bed before three o'clock. What
kind of hour is that to go to bed?"
"He stays up because he likes it."
"He's lonely. I'm not lonely. I have a wife waiting in bed for me."
"He had a wife once too."
"A wife would be no good to him now."
"You can't tell. He might be better with a wife."
"His niece looks after him. You said she cut him down."
"I know."
"I wouldn't want to be that old. An old man is a nasty thing."
"Not always. This old man is clean. He drinks without spilling. Even now,
drunk. Look at him."
"I don't want to look at him. I wish he would go home. He has no regard for
those who must work."
The old man looked from his glass across the square, then over at the
waiters.
"Another brandy," he said, pointing to his glass. The waiter who was in a
hurry came over.
"Finished," he said, speaking with that omission of syntax stupid people
employ when talking to drunken people or foreigners. "No more tonight. Close
now."
"Another," said the old man.
"No. Finished." The waiter wiped the edge of the table with a towel and
shook his head.
The old man stood up, slowly counted the saucers, took a leather coin
purse from his pocket and paid for the drinks, leaving half a peseta tip.
The waiter watched him go down the street, a very old man walking
unsteadily but with dignity.
"Why didn't you let him stay and drink?" the unhurried waiter asked. They
were putting up the shutters. "It is not half-past two."
"I want to go home to bed."
"What is an hour?"
"More to me than to him."
"An hour is the same."
"You talk like an old man yourself. He can buy a bottle and drink at home."
"It's not the same."
"No, it is not," agreed the waiter with a wife. He did not wish to be unjust.
He was only in a hurry.
"And you? You have no fear of going home before your usual hour?"
"Are you trying to insult me?"
"No, hombre, only to make a joke."
"No," the waiter who was in a hurry said, rising from pulling down the metal
shutters. "I have confidence. I am all confidence."
"You have youth, confidence, and a job," the older waiter said. "You have
everything."
"And what do you lack?"
"Everything but work."
"You have everything I have."
3
"No. I have never had confidence and I am not young."
"Come on. Stop talking nonsense and lock up."
"I am of those who like to stay late at the café," the older waiter said. "With
all those who do not want to go to bed. With all those who need a light for the
night."
"I want to go home and into bed."
"We are of two different kinds," the older waiter said. He was now dressed
to go home. "It is not only a question of youth and confidence although those
things are very beautiful. Each night I am reluctant to close up because there
may be some one who needs the café."
"Hombre, there are bodegas open all night long."
"You do not understand. This is a clean and pleasant café. It is well lighted.
The light is very good and also, now, there are shadows of the leaves."
"Good night," said the younger waiter.
"Good night," the other said. Turning off the electric light he continued the
conversation with himself. It was the light of course but it is necessary that the
place be clean and pleasant. You do not want music. Certainly you do not want
music. Nor can you stand before a bar with dignity although that is all that is
provided for these hours. What did he fear? It was not a fear or dread. It was a
nothing that he knew too well. It was all a nothing and a man was a nothing too.
It was only that and light was all it needed and a certain cleanness and order.
Some lived in it and never felt it but he knew it all was nada y pues nada y nada y
pues nada. Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name thy kingdom nada thy
will be nada in nada as it is in nada. Give us this nada our daily nada and nada us
our nada as we nada our nadas and nada us not into nada but deliver us from
nada; pues nada. Hail nothing full of nothing, nothing is with thee. He smiled and
stood before a bar with a shining steam pressure coffee machine.
"What's yours?" asked the barman.
"Nada."
"Otro loco mas," said the barman and turned away.
"A little cup," said the waiter.
The barman poured it for him.
"The light is very bright and pleasant but the bar is unpolished," the waiter
said.
The barman looked at him but did not answer. It was too late at night for
conversation.
"You want another copita?" the barman asked.
"No, thank you," said the waiter and went out. He disliked bars and
bodegas. A clean, well-lighted café was a very different thing. Now, without
thinking further, he would go home to his room. He would lie in the bed and
finally, with daylight, he would go to sleep. After all, he said to himself, it's
probably only insomnia. Many must have it.
http://www.url-der.org/a_clean_well_lighted_place.pdf

[de officiis]

Truly a first world problem.

People are lonely because they choose to be.

Excatly.

And American black people who live in a "hood culture", do that because they choose so. The opiod crisis is people choosing to dispense and consuming more opiods. Victimhood culture exists because people choose to see most interactions as an interaction between an aggressor and victim. Poor public education exists because someone chose and still choose the system to be that way. Every single problem in your society exists because someone/some group chose it should be so.

Why choose those things, then?

Some degree of curiousity about why people choose to do something that is either self-destructive or to society at large, is probably healthy, no? If more people are lonely, that's entirely on them to fix, correct. But why would more people choose it in the first place? What brought on the change? While the US isn't Japan, they have this in an extreme degree in Japan. Men and women don't even dare date, and foreswear sex and reproduction. A happy people is, ultimatively, a more productive and wealth-generating one. Ignore DB's claims of victimhood, and don't see it as a sympathy issue. See it as an economic one. Does society benefit more from having more people socially capable of working well together, or does it benefit from people who isolate themselves completely from social interaction, gazing into their own navels?

Yes, casting the issue in terms of victimhood negates the need to examine whatever structural forces are at play in our society that might explain what is going on. I think Dr. Y is correct that many factors in modern life have led us to the current situation.

[jediuser598]

Stop whining.

Fuck off.

[PartyOf5]

Jeez, do you people even TRY to understand the person you are responding to? I'm bi-polar, partially agoraphobic with serious anxiety and nervous disorders, the kid is Aspie and Nerd struggles with depression.

When, exactly, did loneliness become a mental disorder/chemical imbalance?

I didn't realize analysis of your entire family was necessary in order to disagree with your post.

No one mentioned chemical imbalance or mental disorder. You can be lonely without those. Wait, I need to understand who it is I'm dealing with here. Oh yeah, bi-polar etc. etc. Either an expert on loneliness or randomly shit posting. Hmmmmm.