Loneliness in COVID Times

Loneliness has crippling effects.
Credit: Claudia Wolff via Unsplash

An apt definition of loneliness is “the state of distress or discomfort that results when one perceives a gap between one’s desires for social connection and actual experiences of it.” These psychological discrepancies have clear physical ramifications; especially in the COVID era, they can have lethal consequences.

Deleterious Effects on Health

Physical manifestations of loneliness include (but are not limited to) increased risk of heart disease. A pre-COVID study published in the JAMA Open Network states that in a study of more than 57,825 older women in the U.S., women who had experienced greater loneliness and social isolation had up to a 27% percent increase in cardiovascular disease.

Loneliness can also exacerbate dementia in older adults and their caregivers. According to a study published in Scientific Reports, “In an Italian cohort, Canevelli et. al. found that 54.7% of people with dementia experienced worsened neuropsychiatric symptoms, with worsened agitation, apathy and depression the most commonly observed.” Caregivers also reported increased psychological symptoms, including “increased levels of burden, anxiety, depression, and distress” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Most sadly, social isolation may also mean that seniors die alone, with no one to comfort them or offer needed support.

One example: In Prestino, Italy, police found the mummified remains of Marinella Beretta, a 70-year-old woman who lived alone, two-and-a-half years after her death, according to CBS News.  Local townspeople had assumed that she had moved away before the pandemic started.

“What happened to Marinella Beretta in Como, the forgotten loneliness, hurts our consciences,” Family Minister Elena Bonetti said. “We have a duty, as a community that wants to remain united, to remember her life… no one must be left alone.”

Social isolation can be especially harmful to minds and bodies.
Credit: Kristina Tripkovic via Unsplash

The Silver Lining

Heightened awareness brings heightened action. Both the U.K. and Japan have created Ministers of Loneliness. Not only have these countries initiated such measures as Loneliness Awareness Weeks within their borders, but they have begun efforts to lead the global community. Doing so hopefully will help humanity to erase the stigma around loneliness and create social change.

Closer to home in the U.S., there are organizations such as the nonprofit Project for Arts and Healing, which created Project Unlonely to “promote creative expression as an approach to improve public health.” The foundation encourages seniors to participate in the arts in order to restore and rejuvenate their physical health and improve their ability to engage with the community.