How to be alone: the difference between loneliness and solitude
Since the late 1980s, scientists have been tracking a whale across the Pacific Ocean.
It sings at a sonic frequency higher than any other species of whale: at 52 Hertz, just above the lowest note on a tuba.
The whale calls out; no one answers.
It’s been nicknamed the loneliest animal in the world.
Loneliness.
It’s become a dirty word, loaded with shame and stigma. No one admits to feeling it.
Scientists diagnose ‘loneliness epidemics’ as if it’s an infectious disease. We fear hearing the word spoken aloud in case we catch it.
It terrifies us.
Perhaps that’s why children are sent to their rooms to be alone as punishment. And adults without families are automatically pitied.
But wait — isn’t there a difference between solitude and loneliness?
We use the two interchangeably because we’ve been conditioned to think of them as the same state; someone who spends time alone must, naturally, be lonely.
But that’s not the case.
Loneliness is being alone — and not liking it. It’s a feeling.
