The Worst Advice We Lonely People Get
Loneliness is taboo, and you can’t buy friendship. And yet: There’s hope for us all.
Just join a club. Get out more and go to events, you’ll meet people that way. If you’ve ever told someone you’re feeling lonely or Googled the topic of loneliness, you might have received this common sense advice. If you had a sense that it’s just not that simple, and perhaps even felt like your loneliness was your fault, you’re not alone.
Loneliness, a cursory survey of the interwebs will tell you, is an ever-increasing issue in our Western industrialised societies and has even been declared a “pressing global health threat” by the World Health Organisation.
I’m an introvert on the autistic spectrum who guards my alone time fiercely, but being someone who recharges my batteries alone rather than with others doesn’t mean I don’t need human connection. If you’re an introvert or rather sensitive person, perhaps you can relate to the fact that social interaction needs to be in specific forms to be nourishing. Small doses of company, with people who are fellow fans of meaningful conversation beyond small talk — that’s my bag.
When I first moved to West Wales, UK, it took a very long time to make new friends, and I felt awkward and stilted in social situations where I…
