Loneliness

Join Kathryn and U of Chicago Prof. John T. Cacioppo Loneliness Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection "Cacioppo presents alarming evidence that a sense of rejection or isolation disrupts not only our thinking abilities, will power, and perseverance but also key cellular processes deep within the human body. Over time, this feeling of isolation-also know as loneliness-can lead to high blood pressure, a decline in the immune response, a dramatic increase in the corrosive effects of stress and can impair DNA transcription in our immune cells. It also limits our ability to internally regulate our emotions trapping us in self-defeating behaviors that reinforce the very isolation and rejection that we dread. His findings suggest that chronic loneliness may well belong on the list of risk factors for health alongside smoking, obesity, or lack of exercise. All the more disturbing, then, that studies tell us roughly 60 million people in the US are feeling lonely at any given moment."