How to Deal with Loneliness during Quarantine
With the recent hit of the COVID-19 pandemic, things have taken a new path. Contact with family members, friends, and colleagues is limited, and many countries still restrict social activities. It is natural to miss your friends and family during the lockdown stages, and there is nothing we can do except distance ourselves socially and not let the feelings overwhelm us.
Although this pandemic is recent, the loneliness epidemic predates the practice of social distancing. With COVID, the feelings of loneliness have only increased, but they are not new.
One of the common misconceptions I found about loneliness is that people often confuse it with being alone. To understand how to combat loneliness during quarantine, we need to take a look at the following comparison of the states of being alone and lonely.
Feeling Alone or Feeling Lonely
Feeling alone and being lonely are two widely different things. Being alone might mean that some people have an internal ability to function better on their own instead of in group settings. This group of people might include introverts. It works more like a choice of performing any activity.
However, loneliness causes a level of isolation that directly affects mental health and human well-being. These feelings make it challenging to form new relationships or maintain existing ones. A person suffering from loneliness can feel vulnerable and less trusting of others.
A recent survey in the USA before the pandemic depicted a grim picture: 70% of younger people in the Western world were lonely, whereas their grandparents were around 50%. Even without a pandemic enforcing us to be separate from each other, the joint global social health is not top-notch.
Loneliness and the Pandemic
More people feel lonelier than ever, and this effect has had a domino effect due to COVID-19. I was amazed to find that people feel three times more likely to feel lonely in the UK alone. In the USA alone, one in every five young people claimed to be lonely. Now, these percentages have crept up to almost half.
These numbers are alarming, given how plenty of research suggests that our social relationships can be crucial to our physical health as our mental one. It is no surprise that people suffering from elongated periods of loneliness have higher mortality rates and many other health complications.
Loneliness and Wellness Connection
When I learned of the COVID-related restrictions, I immediately started searching for ways to keep my mental health at par with the current situation. I knew that the distress of loneliness causes serious ramifications that appear weird psychological traumas later in life. I decided that I was not letting myself get lost in such a situation.
A quick internet search, and I found the essential connection of loneliness with well-being. Since the dawn of age, humans have been living together as hunter-gatherer societies, which largely depended on cooperation. This reliance made humans evolve so that they could rely on each other for food and shelter. When we are isolated, our brains go into hyper-vigilance modes, looking out for threats and challenges. This alertness causes stress, which ultimately increases the feelings of loneliness.
How to Combat Loneliness During a Pandemic?
Even though we cannot be together physically, we can thank technology for helping us out during uncertain times like these. It is extremely crucial to take care of our mental health during these times when we feel socially isolated and lonely. Following are some tips that can help you overcome loneliness during quarantine:
You are not Alone
The first and the foremost aspect of being isolated in quarantine is to understand that the whole world has come to a standstill. I found this tip to be of particular help to me. Since lockdown, I started feeling lonely myself, and I often found myself repeating that it is fine and that everything would be fine.
Change your mindset
Based on how I often told my mind how everything around me was the same, I started telling myself that I can finally focus on myself, my hobbies, and my home now that I am not fully devoted to my business. As an entrepreneur, you can easily fall into the rabbit hole of feeling guilty for not working, and I had to tell myself that it was okay not to be working during these times.
As soon as I started convincing my mind of thinking ahead of my emotional limits, I noticed a list of long-avoided tasks that I needed to do but could not take time out. There were some things around my house that needed reorganizing or fixing. A change of mindset is slow, but you cannot undermine its positive results once you give it a try.
Stick to a Normal Routine
Another helpful tip is to make it seem like it is any other day. I tried to keep a timetable that reflected many of my pre-quarantine daily activities. If I could not find any activities to do, I would just put some of my hobbies there to spend time. I realized that being lethargic would quickly lead to negativity, so I started to fill in the morning gaps with mediation.
Even though my quarantine limit was ten days, I found that those ten days were excessively stretched out and droning. Meditation helped me quite a lot during those ten days.
Power of Fifteen
I read some psychologists point out a simple life hack: using fifteen minutes every day to call or FaceTime someone you think of as a closed friend. I surrounded myself with my entrepreneur colleagues as soon as I realized that we would be under a lockdown. Quick thinking on my part, I wanted my friends to be in my environment so that I always had the opportunity to talk to them. We mostly used social media messenger apps, and without them, I would have had a tough time struggling with loneliness.
Learn A New Skill or Habit
As cliched as it sounds, I did use my internet connection for fair use: to learn a new skill or learn something new. I rolled in a few entrepreneurial courses and conferences to learn more about my field. I also started taking baking classes because I love baking. These activities kept me busy, and I learned something as well.
I also started writing my daily thoughts in a journal to check my mental health better.
Help Others
I figured that since my lockdown would end sooner than many older people who live in my community, I planned to help them get their groceries and do other chores. This habit helped them and made me more emphatic to people in positions where they cannot help themselves. You can also check on your friends, relatives, and close ones who you know to deal with anxiety or depression.
Online Workouts
Nearing the end of my quarantine days, I got into 20-minutes exercise tutorials on YouTube, and I started incorporating them into my daily routine. I continued doing meditation, but I also started working out a little. Exercising is a great mood-booster, and working out with my friends online, proved to be an even better tip that helped me overcome loneliness. Thanks to Livestream services, we could all assign a particular time, go online, and work out together.
Sharing Meals Virtually
A friend of mine told me about this new habit people were adopting not to eat alone, where all your friends could log on to a video calling platform and have a meal together. Given how I was learning a few dishes throughout quarantine, I tried making them and sharing the recipe with my friends.
I was amazed to learn that psychologists recommend sharing meals, especially one meal of the day. This effort not only helps to de-stress and bond, but it also inhibits cortisol production during digestion and makes you eat slower and healthier than you would on your own.
Share feelings
Whenever I felt that I needed to share my feelings, I would openly do so with my friends. Telling a close person that you are feeling lonely can help, and it makes you relax. I also learned that to combat loneliness. I had to spend less time on social media. I could see someone else enjoying their time, violating rules, or fresh out of quarantine, and I started comparing it to my situation. It was best to avoid using the apps and focus on the messaging platforms to keep in touch with my friends.
Do Things That You Enjoy
Everyone has hobbies. Mine include gardening and enjoying indoor activities. Since I avoided social media largely, I focused my time to get other smaller things that I could not do in my routine. I did go out to the nearby park while observing social distancing protocols, but it was once. Other days, I tried repairing and listening to an old radio, reading books, listening to audiobooks, tried to plant tomato seeds, and tried mindfulness apps. You can also try playing games online with friends and doing other group activities keeping social distancing in mind.
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